Puning Monastery was built in the 20th year (1775) of Emperor Gaozong. A clear axial line runs through the north and south. The front part is a typical north China Han-style Buddhist temple, belonging to a palatial structure and consisting of screen wall, archgates, temple door, stone-tablet pavilion, bell and drum towers, Heavenly King Palace, east and west wing halls and Mahavira (Hall of the Great Hero). The terrain at the back is steep with an elevation of nearly 10 meters. On the tableland is the main structure, the Mahayana tower with more Tibetan architectural features.
The Mahayana Tower consists of four floors, basically in the Han style, but the roof is modeled on Tibet’s Bsam-yas Monastery. A pavilion is built on each of the four corners, and a big pavilion and a big pavilion tower is located in the multi-eave at the center, symbolizing Mt. Sumeru at the center of the universe.
The height of the tower is 24 meters, containing a huge thousand-hand, thousand-eye Avalokitesvara. The 14 platforms and halls of various sizes around the tower represent the sun and moon appearing and disappearing around Mt. Sumeru, and the four large buzhou and eight small buzhou. There is a Lamaist pagoda on each of the four corners colored white, black, red and green, representing the “four-intelligence” or four heavenly kings. Wavy walls enclose the structures, while at the back is the Vajra Dalun Weishan Hill. The whole group of structures symbolize the so-called “Mandala Graph”, introduced from India to Tibet, forming a novel style rarely seen in the Han (Chinese) homeland.
Putuo Zongcheng Temple in the north of Chengde Villa was built in the 2nd year (1767) of Emperor Gaozong, and is modeled on the Potala Palace, but with the addition of many Han architectural techniques. The terrain of the whole temple is low in the front and high at the back, with a big drop.
The total plane can be divided into three parts-front, middle and back. The front part retains the axial symmetrical layout method of the Han-style structure. Along the axis are tower-shaped temple doors while huge stone-tablet pavilions on a platform stand parallel to the five pagoda doors of five Lama Pagodas. There are also glazed memorial archways. The area in the middle part is the largest. On the slope are scattered more than 10 small “white platforms” and Lamaist Pagodas, modeled after the structures in front of Potala Palace. On the elevation of the rear slope is the main body of the temple, also modeled after the Potala Palace, composed of a red plat form at the center and white platforms on the left and right. Several gilded Han-styled roofs unfolded on top of the platform. These platforms are actually outer square yards encircling flat-top buildings. Inside the red platform there are numerous square, heavy-eave polygonal roofed dharmas in one hall, while inside the east and west white platforms are stages and a thousand-Buddha tower respectively.
Of course, the “large red platform” of Putuo Zongcheng Temple lags far behind in comparison with real Potala Palace.
Editor: Liu Fang
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