Puning Temple Travel Guide
Brief Introduction
Covering an area of 23,000 square meters, the Puning Temple (with its popular name Big Buddha Temple) is located in the north-west of Chengde city. It was built in 1755 A.D (Qing Dynasty),it shows the Qing Dynasty´s respect to the Minorities. and it is the only active temple in Chengde.
The main attractions inside the temple are Bell and Drum Towers, Pavilions, Heaven King Palace (Tian Wang Dian) and the Daxiong Baodian.
The temple has also in its time been known as the Big Buddha Temple (Dafo si), a reference to the huge statue of Avalokiteshvara, Goddess of Mercy.
Within this temple, like many temples in Chengde, is designed mainly in Tibetan and Han styles, with various halls including the Gate Hall, the Bell and Drum Towers, a Stele Pavilion, the Hall of Heavenly Kings and the Mahavira Hall.
Enter the temple grounds to a stele pavilion with inscriptions by the Qianlong emperor in Chinese, Manchu, Mongol and Tibetan. Behind are arranged halls in a typical Buddhist temple layout, with the Hall of Heavenly Kings and beyond, the Mahavira Hall. The hall contains three images of the Buddhas of the three generations. Behind lie some very steep steps leading to a gate tower, which you can climb.
It has been placed on "a catalogue of world culture heritage" by UN in 1981.
Features
Puning Temple has a number of friendly Lamas who manage their domain, so be quite and respectful at all times.