The Great Golden Tile Temple

The Great Golden Tile Temple

The Great Golden Tile Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Great Golden Tile Temple, known as Serdon in Tibetan, is the earliest structure of Kumbum Monastery in Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province, covering an area of nearly 450 square meters and serving as the main hall of the monastery. It features a majestic and spectacular Han-style palace architecture with a triple-eaved hip-and-gable roof.

Legend has it that when Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug school (Yellow Sect) of Tibetan Buddhism, was born, his mother buried his afterbirth in the center of what is now the Great Golden Tile Temple, beneath the present Great Silver Pagoda. Later, a bodhi tree grew there with 100,000 leaves, each bearing an image of the Buddha Shakyamuni in the "lion's roar" posture. In response, his mother built a small stupa on the spot. Later generations constructed a towering 11-meter-high Great Silver Pagoda upon the original small stupa, and the monastery that gradually formed around it was named Kumbum Monastery.

　The monastery has undergone multiple expansions over time. In the 50th year of the Kangxi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1711), Erdini, a Mongolian prince of Qinghai, donated 1,300 taels of gold and 10,000 taels of silver to replace the roof with gilded copper tiles. In the 5th year of the Qianlong reign (1740), the Tibetan king Polhané donated a large sum to install decorative elements on the roof ridges. Inside the hall, in front of the pagoda, are displayed gold lamps, silver lamps, bronze lamps, ivory artifacts, antique vases, and other ornaments and ritual instruments. On the lotus pedestal are Buddha statues crafted through sculpting, casting, painting, and appliqué embroidery. The walls and ceilings are adorned with vivid murals depicting Buddhist stories. Within the hall hangs an imperial plaque inscribed with the words “Dharma Banner of Brahmanism,” bestowed by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. The hall also houses hundreds of precious sutras, including one complete set of the Tripitaka.

On either side of the Great Golden Tile Temple stand two Maitreya Buddha halls. The right hall (Shangxiankang) was built in the 5th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty (1577), while the left hall (Xiàxiànkang) was constructed in the 22nd year of the Wanli reign.