Tánzhè Sì 潭柘寺
门头沟区东南部潭柘山
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond
There’s an unpleasant start, passing the corpse of the Capital Iron and Steel Works, once Běijīng’s biggest polluter, and accompanying chemical plants and other industry. But after a while the bus begins to climb up into hills on a pleasant, very green and winding route, passing the Jiètái Sì (which can be seen before or afterwards) after about an hour, and arriving at Tánzhè Sì about 20 minutes later. The temple featured in Běijīng travel guides as far back as the early 17th century, although it would have taken two or three days to reach on country tracks back then. On the way you also pass several new and rebuilt temples funded in part by Chinese resident overseas, as well as small villages with herringbone pattern dry stone walling, and when the scholar trees are in blossom roadside beekeepers with their hives.
Just to the west of the entrance to the car park, the Tǎ Lín (‘Forest of Towers’) is a huddle of stupas in various sizes and shapes in a leafy setting. They hold the remains of monks or function as grave markers, dating back as far as the Jīn dynasty (1115–1234). It is claimed that the temple, whose name means ‘Temple of the Pool and the Mulberry’, is older than Běijīng itself, although given the capital’s youth in Chinese terms that’s a modest achievement, and its foundation is sometimes said to have been as early as 400CE, although it’s more likely to be Sòng dynasty (960–1279). It was favoured by one of the daughters of Khubilai Khan, who became a devout Buddhist and is said to be buried here. The temple once housed a flagstone that had mystically taken the impression of her footprints, but this has long disappeared.
Walk uphill from the rear of the car park along a roughly stone-flagged path through a cordon of trinket sellers. This is a splendid, sprawling temple, with three main axes, courtyards with large ginkgoes and ancient pines, and a series of halls rising ever more steeply up the hillside, surrounded by lush green slopes covered with scholar trees that flower prettily in the spring. There are some mulberry trees at the entrance.
The ticket office is on the right, and after you cross a bridge the first hall through the entrance gate contains the four heavenly kings. The first main Mahavira Hall contains statues of Sakyamuni and the 18 luóhàn (in Sanskrit arhat — beings who have reached nirvana and who thus will not be reborn). A large hall has disappeared from the main courtyard behind, but this has trees of considerable antiquity, including a vast ginkgo and a nearly recumbent pine, held up by scaffolding and marked aptly as ‘resembling a reclining dragon’. Some effort has been made to create colourful displays of flowers in small marble-walled enclosures around the site, and there are potted plants and rose and peony gardens. Side halls hold an exhibition about the expeditionary scholar-monk Xuánzàng (玄奘, 602–664CE), although its opening hours are unpredictable.
The pavilion at the rear of the main courtyard has five golden statues hung with brilliant fabrics, and paths behind give splendid views down over the site. The western axis has a small ordination terrace and the northwest a hall containing the Guānyīn Goddess of Mercy with ‘thousands of hands and eyes’, for which she needs lots of heads.
Further to the west you can pay a small fee to see the West Guānyīn Cave, which amounts to no more than a small niche with a statue, and a path that leads to a cave with a modern statue of a tiger, which tradition has it used to live in the cave and frighten the monks.
On the eastern side the Watercup Pavilion has a reminder that the Qiánlóng emperor used the temple as a ‘travelling palace’, or stopping place, on his trips west. As at the Flower Garden of the Palace of Peaceful Old Age in the Forbidden City, to which he supposedly retired, water flows from a gargoyle-like spout into a winding channel on which you may float little paper boats or a cup of beer (for a fee). A little further east there’s a possible walk to the Dragon Pool after which the temple is partly named (closed during the summer due to a fire risk with the surrounding vegetation), or over a dry watercourse to the Eastern Guānyīn Hall, which includes a passage down to an electrically lit grotto with a handful of small statues (another small fee is payable).
On the east side near the entrance to the temple a giant cooking pot set into the ground was once used to prepare meals for the monks.
▶ In Méntóugōu, about 45km W of central Běijīng, gps 39º54’12”N, 116º01’29”E, t 6086 1699, tzs.bjmtg.gov.cn, 8am–4.30pm (4pm winter). ¥55. m Pínguǒ Yuán (Line 1), then b to 潭柘寺: 931. b 931 services from the 地铁苹果园西 stop just west of m Píngguǒ Yuán begin at 6.15am, and the last bus back from 潭柘寺 is at 6pm. Conveniently, both stops are terminuses.
The Jiètái Sì is just 10km or eight bus stops back down the 931 route, and together the temples make for a pleasant half-day countryside excursion. Vegetarian food is sometimes available at the temples, and more reliably in numerous restaurants around m Píngguǒ Yuán. There are also local markets and department stores there with prices dramatically lower than the tourist haunts. Píngguǒ Yuán is also the starting point for visits to nearby Tián Yì Mù eunuch temple and tomb and mural-laden Fǎ Hǎi Sì, as well as sights up the western side of the city conveniently linked by bus.
Next in Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond: The Flight of the Beekeepers (story)
Previously: Introduction to Villages, Rural Temples, and Scenery
Main Index of A Better Guide to Beijing.
For discussion of China travel, see The Oriental-List.
