The Study Of Beijing's Tibetan Buddhism Temples In Qing Dynasty

Beijing, once the capital of Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and now the political and economic center of China is the place where all kinds of Chinese cultures gather together. Since Tibet being merged into China in Yuan Dynasty, the central authorities of each dynasty have founded lots of Tibetan Buddhist Temples in Beijing so as to show the preferential treatment policies to Tibetan Buddhism. In the middle of the 17th century, after Qing Dynasty dominated the whole China and made Beijing the capital, the administration policies to Tibet of Yuan and Ming Dynasties were inherited. Meanwhile, to meet their own needs for faith, Qing showed great worship to Tibetan Buddhism, especially to Yellow-Hat sect. Consequently, lots of leaders and advanced monks poured into capital to be presented before with the sovereigns and carry out Buddhist ceremonies, which caused an unprecedented scale of Tibetan Buddhism Temples in Beijing—32 governmental temples under the management of vassal state and the number of other temples over 20. So many Tibetan Buddhism temples have brought far-reaching influence on the politics and folk custom in Beijing of Qing Dynasty, some of which are still kept till now. Therefore, the study of Beijing's Tibetan Buddhism Temples in Qing Dynasty bears double folds of significance in both history and reality.Adopting the approaches employed in history and religion studies, the paper discusses the significance of Beijing's Tibetan Buddhism Temples in history and reality through the study on their historical background, rising and declining during their development, as well as their systems and functions. Meanwhile, the paper also gathers many hardly-known historical materials on Beijing's temples scattered in annals of local history and temple, which can be found in the attachments.