Chenlung Temple at the Palace

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On the Friday the opening ceremonies were held for the new Tibetan Research Center at the Palace Museum. The location was what seemed like a remote location on the grounds behind a temple built by Emperor Chenlung. The temple is quite unique in that the outer architecture is completely Chinese but inside the four floors are decorated with murals depicting the iconography of the four classes of Tantra (based on the instructions of Rolpai Dorje). The four Tantra Classee are Kriya, Charya, Yoga and Anuttarayoga. Unfortunately we were not able to go inside the temple on this trip.

The new Research Center is past this Chenlung temple and through a courtyard with a clutter of small buildings behind, in all shapes and sizes. All of these buildings, except the first temple built by Chenlung, are brand new, but done in the traditional palace style. The original buildings in this part of the palace were destroyed by fire in the 1920s and possibly not once but several times. A long two story rectangular building at the back houses a painting gallery with maybe fifty paintings and textiles mostly created in the Palace. Just in front of the painting gallery building, but smaller and square shaped, is another building designed as a sculpture gallery with many beautiful images - most I had never seen before.

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