Lhama Monastery(YongHeGong)

The Lhama Monastery or Yonghe Lamasery (Yonghe Gong in Chinese) was founded during the Qing Dynasty in 1694 on the base of the Ming building. It was originally used by emperor Yongzheng, the fourth son of Kangxi Emperor.

Then the Lhama Monastery became an important place of worship for emperors and a place to study and understand the classics of Buddhism which disseminated from Tibet. Emperor Qianlong in 1744 saw the opportunity to improve national harmony by recognizing the Yonghe temple as one of Buddhism's sacred sites and thus the Yong He Gong Lama Temple has become an important national Tibetan Buddhist temple and Beijing's main place of worship since then.  

The Yonghe temple is Beijing's biggest Lama temple and is globally renowned. Upon entering the temple one is hit the aromatic smell of incense and the sound of candles flutter gently in the breeze. The temple hangs heavy with thick incense smoke, people line up and worship in silence, all that can be heard and felt is the gentle breeze blowing through the temple and the light chinking of religious bells.

One of the most amazing building in the Yonghe Lamasery is its incredible design and structure of Wanfu Pavilion(Pavilion of Infinite Happiness); made completely from wood it stands 23 meters high, every room is connected through vast corridors, rooms are decorated with jewels and sacred artifacts, intricate woodcarvings all dedicated to Buddha. There are several Buddha statues throughout the temple one made of wood is the 18-metres-high woodcarving Maitreya Buddha; it was made entirely of the highest quality jade who in ancient times was robed in an 1100 meter long yellow satin robe. The Wanfu Pavilion was therefore called 'The Buddha Building'.