001 Architecture Ta'er Monastery (Kumbum Monastery) Ta'er Monastery (Kumbum Monastery), in Huangzhong District of Xining, Qinghai, was founded in the Ming dynasty. A Gelug-school monastery of Tibetan Buddhism and the birthplace of Tsongkhapa, it was formerly known as Ta'er Si and the Silver Stupa Monastery. Drawing on Ming and Qing sources such as the Manuscripts of the Forest Lodge, the Sacred Military Records, the Draft History of Qing, and the Memorials on Qinghai, this article traces the monastery's founding and development, its relations with the Ming and Qing central governments, the Lobsang Danjin incident, and its restoration and rebuilding after the Shaanxi–Gansu Hui revolt, and also presents historical photographs of Ta'er Monastery taken between 1900 and 1937. Ming dynasty Huangzhong District, Xining, Qinghai Ta'er Monastery · Ta'er Si · Silver Stupa Monastery →
002 Architecture Zhihua Temple Zhihua Temple, in Lumicang Hutong in Beijing's Dongcheng District, was completed in the ninth year of the Zhengtong reign of the Ming (1444). After his restoration, Emperor Yingzong erected a shrine to Wang Zhen inside the temple; the Qianlong emperor later approved Shen Tingfang's petition to destroy the statue and the stele, after which the temple lost its patronage and gradually declined. By the Republican era, Abbot Puyuan could only keep the monastery going by renting out rooms and felling and selling its ancient cypresses. In 1930 the two caisson ceilings of Zhihua Hall and Wanfo Pavilion were dismantled and sold: the former entered the Philadelphia Museum of Art the same year, while the latter was purchased the following year by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art from a Beijing antiquities dealer. Ming dynasty Dongcheng District, Beijing Zhihua Temple · Zhihua Chan Temple · Buddhist architecture →