Former Yamen of the Lu Chieftains 鲁土司衙门旧址

About Former Yamen of the Lu Chieftains

Former Yamen of the Lu Chieftains (鲁土司衙门旧址) is the former seat of the hereditary Lu chieftains (土司) in Liancheng Village (连城村), Liancheng Town (连城镇), Yongdeng County (永登县), Gansu, preserved with the family's Buddhist and Taoist temples around it.

Liancheng, beside the Datong River (大通河), was the Lu family's centre of rule. Their founder, Tuohuan (脱欢), descended from Kuolijian (阔列坚) of the Yuan; early in the Ming he surrendered with his troops and was installed at Liancheng as a chieftain. His grandson Shijia (失伽) received the surname Lu from the Yongle emperor (明成祖) and became Lu Xian (鲁贤). Nineteen generations held the post before the chieftain system was scrapped in 1931. In the Ming the family's forces were based at Zhuanglang Guard (庄浪卫), a post bordering Tatar-held land to the east and commanding roads to the Western Regions, Qinghai and Tibet.

Family records say that in 1378 the court ordered the chieftain's seat set up at Liancheng with a seven-bay building. The yamen dates from that year and was enlarged and repaired many times later. With the official garden and Miaoyin Temple (妙因寺), the complex spreads over almost 40,000 square metres, of which Ming-era structures account for 2,877; the brick-and-timber buildings face south.

Miaoyin Temple, a Gelug Tibetan Buddhist monastery on the yamen's west side, began in 1427, when Lu Xian built a place of meditation beside the house of his brother, the monk Lawoluozhusi (剌斡罗祝思). In 1442 the emperor named it Datong Temple (大通寺); it took its present name under the Guangxu emperor. Its oldest surviving building, the Wansui Hall (万岁殿) of 1427, has a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof and a ceiling of 168 painted panels judged to be Ming work. Behind it, the Duojiqiang Hall (多杰羌殿), built in 1471 by Lu Jian (鲁鉴), has a ceiling painted with 196 mandalas. Across the street from the yamen, Xianjiao Temple (显教寺) keeps only its main hall, five bays by five and in typical Ming style; the 99 Ming and Qing thangkas now in the Yongdeng County Museum (永登县博物馆) came out of its ceiling. About 80 m from the yamen's back wall stands the Leitan (雷坛), a Taoist shrine to the thunder deities built in 1555 by the sixth chieftain Lu Jing (鲁经) and his son; its main hall once held 36 thunder-god statues, destroyed in 1958.

The yamen was placed in the fourth batch of national key protected heritage sites (全国重点文物保护单位) in 1996, with Miaoyin Temple included, and Xianjiao Temple and the Leitan were added to the same listing in 2006.

What to look for

• The chieftains' yamen, first built in 1378, with its official garden
• Wansui Hall (万岁殿) of Miaoyin Temple, built in 1427, with 168 painted ceiling panels
• Duojiqiang Hall (多杰羌殿), built in 1471, its ceiling painted with 196 mandalas
• The main hall of Xianjiao Temple (显教寺), in typical Ming style, across the street from the yamen
• Leitan (雷坛), a Taoist thunder-deity shrine of 1555, with its surviving passage hall and main hall

Location & getting there

Getting to Former Yamen of the Lu Chieftains

• Search for 鲁土司衙门旧址 with 兰州市 and 永登县.