Bao'en Temple Pingwu, Sichuan, China
4.0 (2 reviews) Spent 1-2 hours Ranking #2 in Pingwu County Historic Sites • Points of Interest & Landmarks • Architectural Buildings • Educational sites
Similar to Forbidden City
The Temple originally built as a local "forbidden city" was converted to monastery so as not to anger the Chinese Emperor. Beautiful, minimal crowds, relaxing are all reasonable descriptions. The town market is just around the corner and worth visiting
Address
Beijie Road, Qingzhen Alley, Pingwu County, Sichuan, China.
Current local date and time now
Thursday, May 16, 2024, 0:01
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4.0 based on (2 reviews)
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4LaDolceVita27 5:00 PM May 22, 2015
Beautiful and free of crowds
We were told a couple of interesting stories about the monastery. Supposedly, it was originally built by a local warlord as a private home in imitation of The Forbidden City. When the Emperor got wind of this and invited himself to stay, the owner wisely decided to convert it to a monastery and dedicate it to the Emperor. This is presumably why the monastery contains no actual monks and might explain why, apart from a couple of tourists we saw very few people here. Its frescoes and carvings also survived the Cultural Revolution and its attacks on religious icons through the quick-thinking custodians who covered valuable relics with boards emblazoned with pro-Mao slogans and then defied the Red Guards to damage them. The location in Pingwu is itself noteworthy. The city is surrounded by mountains and there are many attractive shrubs and trees within the monastery grounds. Even if you have no interest in Buddhism, you will find this a tranquil spot to pass a few hours.
