Wencheng Princess Temple, located in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is an ancient building with both Tang Dynasty artistic style and Tibetan flat-topped architectural features. The giant statue of Princess Wencheng and the eight Buddha statues in the hall are all carved from stone walls, which look like exquisite clay sculptures, simple and honest. The temple faces south, facing the mountains and water. Every year, Buddhist pilgrims and Chinese and foreign tourists come here to pay tribute.
Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, located in the southeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is the source of the Three Rivers in China and the world-famous hometown of Tibetan songs and dances. Princess Wencheng Temple has been built here with a history of 1300 years, and it has been listed as a national cultural relic protection unit.
Princess Wencheng Temple, also known as Princess Shajia Temple, is located in Benagou, 25 kilometers southeast of Jiegu Town, Yushu County. This is a grand canyon, with endless mountains on both sides, standing under the blue sky of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with picturesque pines and cypresses on the mountains and picturesque rivers below. Princess Wencheng Temple in Tibetan architecture is close to Baizhang Cliff, with quiet scenery and splendid roof. Numerous Tibetan scriptures are engraved on all the cliffs and big stones around the temple. The temple has three floors, covering an area of more than 600 square meters and 9.6 meters high. The statue of Princess Wencheng in the center of the temple sits on the lotus seat of the lion, which is 8 meters high. There are eight statues of Buddha on each side of the statue, which are divided into two layers. Each statue is 3 meters high, finely carved and lifelike. The temple is an ancient building, which has both the artistic style of the Tang Dynasty and the characteristics of Tibetan flat-topped architecture.
1300 for more than 300 years, incense has never stopped here all year round, butter lamps are always on day and night, and Tibetans and China people who come to worship are also in an endless stream, like a family.
Princess Wencheng is the daughter of Emperor Taizong's imperial clan. She married Tubo Songzan Gambu in the fifteenth year of Tang Zhenguan (64 1). Princess Wencheng and her party set out from Chang 'an, passed through Xining, crossed Sun Moon Mountain and made a long journey to Lhasa. It is said that Benagou in Yushu County is the place where Princess Wencheng stayed the longest on her way to Tibet. Tibetan leaders and the masses here once held a grand welcoming ceremony for her. Princess Wencheng was deeply moved. She decided to stay longer and teach local people agriculture and textile technology.
After Princess Wencheng left here and entered Lhasa, Tibetans here built statues on the stone wall to commemorate the princess's portrait, and then built temples. This temple has become a symbol of Tibetan-Chinese unity. Since then, Baigou has become a sacred place in Yushu area and a Buddhist temple where believers worship. Incense is lingering and enduring, and local Tibetans regard it as a paradise on the Yushu Plateau.