Shengyou Temple

Shengyou temple is located in the northwest of Zhaosu County in Xinjiang. It is one of the four most complete preserved temples of Lamaism in Xinjiang. Shengyou temple is a place for Mongolian herdsmen to pray for God.

Shengyou Temple

Shengyou temple is located in the northwest of Zhaosu County in Xinjiang, on the Bank of hongnahai river at the foot of Tianshan Mountain. It is quiet, solemn and magnificent. There are eight existing buildings surrounded by walls. It is a rare ancient building in China.

Shengyou temple is a place for Mongolian herdsmen to pray for God. It faces south from the north and has a well-organized layout. There are Zhaobi, Shanmen, QianDian, Dadian and houdian on the central axis line. There are the side halls on the hard top of the mountain on both sides of the East and the west, and there are the East and West buildings corresponding to them. There are also two floors and two eaves pavilions with octagonal plane in the courtyard. The plan of the hall is square with seven rooms. The second floor is the top of Xieshan mountain, with far-reaching eaves and high lifting and folding.

Founded in 1889, there are 8 existing buildings with an area of 2000 square meters. The temple covers an area of hundreds of mu.

Overall layout

The overall layout of Shengyou temple is similar to that of Chinese Buddhism, but the details still reveal the characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism.

The layout is of central axis structure, including Mountain Gate, bell tower, Drum Tower, etc. The hall has double eaves and a Han style Daxie mountain top. The center of the hall top is decorated with silver metal magic tools, but it is not a common Falun or lotus. Before the main hall, there was a structure similar to the heavenly king hall, but there was nothing in the hall. There are no plaques in each hall. The halls on both sides in front of the main hall should be the pharmacist hall and the Mizong hall. Some of the windows are tied with strips of fine cloth, and some of them are printed with white prayer flags in Tibetan, on which the image of a horse carrying magic weapons is painted.

The temple seat faces south in the north, with symmetrical layout of front hall, main hall, back hall, East and West Hall. The main building, the main hall, is magnificent with its cornices and brackets, painted pillars and carved beams, gilded and powdered. There are rare birds and animals, exotic flowers and flowers, myths and legends, historical stories, murals and gallery paintings in the traditional style of Central Plains. In front of the main hall, there is a plaque of "imperial edict to build Shengyou Temple" written in Chinese. There are hundreds of Buddha statues in the hall, with curtains and banners from Tibet. The rust work is extremely exquisite.

Main buildings

There are eight buildings in the temple, including Zhaobi, Shanmen, front hall, main hall, left and right side halls, octagonal double flying eaves pavilions and back hall. The buildings are symmetrically distributed from east to west with north-south axis. The main building is 17 meters wide and 17 meters high. The architectural form of the main hall is large eaves, high lift and folding, and steep roof. His royal highness hangs a plaque of "Chijian Shengyou Temple" in Manchu and Chinese characters, with vigorous and powerful calligraphy.

Daxiong hall is the main building of this ancient temple. The hall is 17 meters wide, 7 bays, square in plane, big mast, high folded, steep roof, four corner cornice, which is like a dragon head exploring the sea, and under the cornice is a bucket arch, which is a multi-layer arching structure. The project is exquisite, gilded and painted, resplendent and resplendent. The hall corridor held up by giant pillars is painted with rare animals, tigers, lions, deer, unicorn, Phoenix and macaque. The main wall of the hall is also painted with traditional Chinese style murals such as Erlong Xizhu, Phoenix Biyi, Ziya fishing, suwu shepherd and so on.

There are many pillars in the main hall, but the prayer flags are sparse. Wooden staircases still exist. Originally, the purpose of building staircases and corridors in the hall was to see the Buddha's chest and head. This style was borrowed from the Indian grottoes, but the Buddha statues in the hall did not know what to do.

This majestic, simple and solemn temple covers an area of several hundred mu, with a total construction area of about 2000 square meters. It is a relatively complete temple among the existing Lamaism in Xinjiang.

In the yurt above the Buddha, there are statues of Buddha, all kinds of gold and silver Zulu cups, altars and ancient bells all over the grassland. In the temple, there are many ancient trees, morning bells and evening drums, monks gather, birds sing and birds dance, which is simple and solemn. Shengyou temple is called "jijinling" in Tibetan and "Bogda xiagesong" in Mongolian.

[source of atlas]

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Historical evolution

Shengyou temple in Zhaosu is called "Jinjiling" in Tibetan and "Bogda xiagesong" in Mongolian. It is a large-scale temple complex in Qing Dynasty and the most complete Tibetan Buddhist temple in Xinjiang.

It is said that after the establishment of the left-wing irute camp of the Mongolian people, the temple was relocated many times. After several twists and turns, the site was selected at the mouth of the HONGNA trench in Zhaosu. He invited 80 skilled craftsmen from Beijing thousands of miles away and started construction in 1898. Only then has this splendid Lama Temple been built.

On June 25, 2001, as an ancient building of the Qing Dynasty, Zhaosu Shengyou temple was approved by the State Council to be listed in the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Collection of cultural relics

The murals in the hall were seriously damaged. Some dark tapestries hung around. The statues of Green Tara and White Tara were listed. Only a few magic weapons in the hall are also incomplete. There are eight murals on the wooden walls outside the hall, from which we can see some characteristics of esoteric school.

Tourism characteristics

In Shengyou temple, the ancient trees are towering, the pines and fir block out the sun, and you can enter the hall with a sense of transcendence. Looking along the central axis, eight buildings are well arranged and symmetrical in layout. In addition to the central axis construction of Zhaobi, Shanmen, QianDian, Dadian and houdian, there are hard peak side hall and octagonal double eaves Pavilion on the left and right.

Address: 212 provincial road, Zhaosu County, Yili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Longitude: 81.114321

Latitude: 43.163513

Ticket information: children under 1.1 meters are free of charge

Adult price: 30 yuan

Half ticket with student card

Senior citizen certificate is free for people over 70 years old

Opening hours: 8:00-20:00