Prince's Temple

Prince's Temple

The Prince's Temple is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Prince's Temple is one of the four major temples in Inner Mongolia. Located on the southern slope of Erdentuolai Obo in the northern part of Xilinhot City, Xilin Gol League, it is called "Bandita Gegentemple" in Mongolian and "Chongshan Temple" in Chinese. The Prince's Temple was first built in the eighth year of the Qianlong reign during the Qing Dynasty (1742 AD) and underwent continuous renovations through seven generations. The entire architectural complex includes seven main halls: Chokchin, Minggan, Chor, Jüdüba, Ganjuur, Düngkür, and Erütegtü, five labrang (monastic colleges), five stupas, as well as over 30 temple storehouses and two residential quarters for lamas located to the east, west, and rear of the temple. The architectural complex is vast in scale and majestic in presence, with major halls featuring multiple stories, upturned eaves, bracket sets, carved beams, and painted rafters—grand and elegant in appearance.

Located at the foot of Erdent Obo Mountain in Xilinhot City, the Prince's Temple was first built in the eighth year of the Qianlong reign (1743 AD) and was meticulously constructed through seven generations, consuming over 1.74 million taels of silver. The temple complex is divided into five main halls: the central Chokchin (administrative and religious affairs) hall, flanked by labrang halls, the Chor (philosophy) hall, the Manba (medical) hall, and the Jüdüba (astronomy and mathematics) hall. In addition, there are more than ten smaller halls and over 2,000 lama residences surrounding the Prince's Temple, covering a total area of 1.2 km². After its completion, the temple enjoyed over a hundred years of prosperity, with the number of lamas peaking at 1,200. At that time, the upper echelons of the temple maintained close ties with religious authorities in Lhasa, Tibet, and Mount Wutai in Shanxi, often undertaking arduous journeys on foot to these sacred sites for pilgrimage and scripture collection. Later, with the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Prince's Temple gradually declined. After the establishment of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 1947, the area around the Prince's Temple became the political and economic center of Xilin Gol League, with increasing construction around it. Decades later, this eventually led to the formation of present-day Xilinhot City.

The western temple of the Prince's Temple, also known as the storehouse, is a grand and magnificent quadrangle courtyard complex and represents the finest of the temple’s architecture. The eastern temple includes five labrang: the storehouse, Semchun, Xin Labrang, Chor Rear Palace, Gülidubtu, and Wangdai Hasar. Each structure is solemn and majestic, with delicate paintings and distinctive ethnic features in both interior and exterior decorations. These served as high-level residences for the temple’s lamas or as reception areas for distinguished guests, resembling palaces in their splendor.

Around the entire temple stand one red stupa and five white stupas. The red stupa was built to suppress evil spirits. To the east of the Labrang temple lies a white stupa (also called the inner white stupa), which, according to the recollections of the temple’s lamas, was erected in honor of a meritorious scripture master and has stood for over 200 years. The other four white stupas are located at the four corners of the temple complex, and the area within these stupas marks the temple’s jurisdiction. The Prince's Temple follows Tibetan Buddhism, also known locally as the Yellow Sect, Lamaism, or the Yellow Hat sect, which was introduced to the region from Tibet and Qinghai starting from the Yuan Dynasty. To achieve the goal of “unity of religion and politics,” the Qing court divided the Yellow Sect into four administrative jurisdictions. The Yellow Sect in Inner Mongolia and other regions came under the governance of the Zhangjia Lama.

The Prince's Temple is well-known as the “Extensive Prosperity Temple” because it houses a complete array of Buddhist ritual items and scriptures. According to records, the various halls enshrine a rich and diverse collection of Buddha statues in great numbers and varying forms. There are several thousand Buddha images, primarily of Sakyamuni, in the form of paintings, sculptures, clay models, and bronze or wooden figures, including many made entirely of gold, silver, or adorned with gold and silver leaf, though most are made of bronze. The temple’s various colleges also possess abundant scriptures. Among the most precious are two complete sets of the Kangyur and Tengyur scriptures. Other valuable texts include the Collected Works of Tsongkhapa, Essentials of Buddhist Doctrine, and Mantras, as well as Tibetan-to-Mongolian translated scriptures, totaling over 4,000 volumes. Ritual instruments and musical instruments are also readily available. The Prince's Temple covers an area of 1.2 square kilometers and follows traditional Yellow Sect architectural styles, with a unique structure and exquisitely fine carvings. It consists of a main temple, subordinate temples, family temples, stupas, and numerous monk quarters. The overall layout is divided into seven high-walled temple courtyards. Alongside the seven parallel walls are the private temples, storehouses, noble residences, and lama dwellings of the 2,500 Hutuktus (reincarnate lamas), spanning a total of 2,500 structures. There are seven representative main halls (Dugangs), five scripture halls (colleges), six bedroom halls (labrang), six stupas, and eleven temples with finials. Among them, the western red wall (also called the western temple or Thousand Buddha Hall) mainly houses a thousand Buddha statues, including the labrang temple, the Thousand Buddha Hall, the lama hall, and the executive lama residence. The middle red wall centers around the Chokchin Hall (also known as the Grand Scripture Hall, Great Buddha Hall, or Administrative and Religious Affairs Hall), which includes the Maitreya Buddha, bell and drum towers, and the memorial shrine housing the relics of past Hutuktus of the temple. The eastern red wall (also called the eastern temple) is dominated by the Chor Hall (Great Scripture Recitation Hall, Exoteric Buddhism Department, also known as “Fuyuan Temple”), including side rooms, Shamchung, Gongqing, Rongken, Chor Rear Palace, the main temple storehouse, the Chadufu warehouse, and executive lama residences. Further east are the Jüdüba, Manba, Düngkür, and Ganjuur halls. The four western halls have main gates, while the others have smaller or side gates. The main gate of the Grand Scripture Hall is particularly grand, and in front of it lies the temple’s main square (now the local market), which includes a preaching platform where all-temple ceremonies are held.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units