Ruiying Temple 瑞应寺

About Ruiying Temple

Its halls rise across the hillside, and the complex includes monastic-college buildings as well as the principal worship halls. Much of the visible architecture was restored after twentieth-century destruction, a distinction worth keeping in mind while exploring. The surrounding stone-Buddha pilgrimage path gives a second perspective on the monastery beyond its main axis, while worship continues to shape access.

Ruiying Temple, known to Mongols as Gegen Sum (葛根苏木) and popularly as Folama Temple (佛喇嘛寺), is a Gelug-school Tibetan Buddhist monastery, the largest of its kind in Northeast China. It was founded in the eighth year of the Kangxi era (康熙八年, 1669) and had taken basic shape by 1705. In 1703 the Kangxi Emperor granted the temple its name and a plaque inscribed in Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan and Chinese script.

In 1824 the temple's Zasak Lama received an imperial seal, and the prince of the Tumed Left Banner placed seventeen villages and twenty-four temples under its authority, combining administrative, judicial and religious power; with Puan Temple (普安寺) on Haitang Mountain it became known as the 'East Tibet' (东藏). After 1949, and during the Cultural Revolution, its buildings and statues were destroyed and its monks dispersed; restoration began in 1984, and its main halls were rebuilt between 1994 and 1998.

The complex extends more than ten li (里) across the hillside. Its main halls include the Grand Hall (大雄宝殿), Prayer Hall (祈愿殿) and Nine Ministers Prayer Hall (九大臣祈愿殿), along with four monastic colleges (扎仓) including one for Buddhist logic and one for medicine. Five smaller temples stand on the surrounding hilltops and slopes, and a path encircling the monastery is lined with more than ten thousand stone Buddha statues.

What to look for

• The hillside sequence of main halls and monastic-college architecture.
• The stone-Buddha figures along the surrounding pilgrimage path.

Location & getting there

Getting to Ruiying Temple

Travel to Fosi Village in Fosi Town, Fuxin Mongol Autonomous County. Arrange the return from the village and ask which worship halls and path sections are open to visitors.