The Yonghe Gong (Palace of Peace and Harmony) site was given to the Kangxi Emperor’s son Yinzhen in 1694 for use as his dwelling. When Yinzhen became the Yongzheng Emperor in 1722 he instructed half of the edifice to be converted into a lamasery for the Geluk (Yellow Hat) school of Tibetan Buddhist monks. When he died in 1735, his successor, Emperor Qianlong, gave the place imperial status. Its turquoise tiles were replaced with imperial yellow, and the Yonghe Lamasery became increasingly important as a political tool and center for lama administration, enabling the emperor to court regions on the outer reaches of the empire. The temple supervised the election of the Mongolian living Buddha who was chosen by lot from a golden urn.
Both its architecture and extensive artworks arise from a combination of Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian iconography, though it most notably retains the style of an imperial princely palace. The entrance lies to the south with five main halls aligned on a north south central axis separated by courtyards. The Hall of Heavenly Kings (Tianwan Dian), was originally the main entrance. In its center sits a huge smiling Maitreya Buddha. Behind this a statue of Wei Tuo, defender of the faith, faces out to a large courtyard and the Hall of Harmony and Peace, the temple’s main building which houses three bronze Buddhas (past present and future.) The Hall of Everlasting Protection to the north was originally Prince Yong’s living quarters but now houses the Buddhas of Longevity, Medicine and the Lion’s Roar Buddha. The Hall of the Wheel of Dharma beyond this functions as a place for intoning sutras and holding ceremonies. Inside stands a 6-meter high statue of Je Tsongkhapa (1357 – 1419), the founder of the Geluk (Yellow Hat) Sect of Buddhism, now the dominant school. The final Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses houses a huge 26-meter tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha (eight metres of which are underground), carved from a single white sandalwood tree. Said to have taken three years to transport from Tibet it is recorded in the 1993 Guinness Book of Records. During the Cultural Revolution (1966 to1976), when the Chinese were busy destroying sites of cultural and historical importance, it is said that the temple survived due to the intervention of then Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. It reopened to the public in 1981 as a Tibetan Buddhist center and soon became one of many government-sponsored sites used to demonstrate China’s respect for the religious freedom of its minorities.