Tibetan Buddhist Temple, Beijing

The Qianlong emperor (reigned 1736-1795), who was born in this building, converted it into a Tibetan Buddhist temple in 1745. It is the largest and one of the best preserved of such temples in Beijing. The Qianlong emperor was a practitioner of Tibetan-style Buddhism.

Here an abbot is pictured standing next to a large incense burner in the courtyard of the temple. His distinctive hat identifies him as belonging to the Gelugpa order of Tantric Buddhism.