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A shot of the White Dagoba Temple in the year 1860. |
The White Dagoba Temple in Beijing opens again on Dec 6 after undergoing two years andseven months' repair. Located in Beihai Park, the temple was also named "Miaoying Temple".
Yang Shuguang, director of the management office of the temple, noted that the temple has beenrepaired eight times since the year 1949. And the latest repair started from 2010, because theplaster of the temple was hollowing, had cracked and even fallen off, which threatened the safetyof the temple and the residents nearby.
According to Yang, the repair follows the traditional process of using similar material to theoriginal structure, and aims to restore the temple to how it once was. One of the most importantthings is to make new plaster and shovel off the old plaster.
During the repair, the temple dried out naturally in the open air for one year, and was thencovered with new plaster. The rust on the seven metal straps that cover the temple was alsocleaned thoroughly and the lightning protection system was changed as well.
Yang mentioned that there was a temple named "Yong'an Temple" in the location of the WhiteDagoba, which was destroyed in a war. Kublai Khan (Hu Bilie), the founder of the Yuan Dynasty(1271-1368) chose to build a new temple at the very place. The new temple was the WhiteDagoba, which later became the center for royals of the Yuan dynasty to pray for blessings.
A monk from Qinghai province came to visit the temple once he heard that it had reopened. "Thisis an old temple and keeps the old figures of Buddha. It's much better to see it once than to hearabout it a hundred times," he said.
The temple also has new exhibitions on the city culture of the Yuan Dynasty and choice Tang Kaartworks.
