One of my favorite museums in Beijing, the Beijing Stone Carving Art Museum is delightful! On the site of the Zhenjue Temple, this museum uses the temple as the central part of its collection. It was built during the 15th century with multiple auxiliary buildings being built around the main pagoda over the centuries that followed.
Over the last century, this temple has become a graveyard for carved stone pieces from across Beijing. If they built a new building or road and had to tear down a temple or remove a cemetery, they moved the stone pieces to this temple. Today, beautiful examples of Beijing’s stone artwork cover the grounds, including dozens of monumental dragon turtles with stelae on their backs.
The Pagoda
Rows of lovely stone friezes wrap around the square base of the central pagoda. Five pyramid-shaped towers crown the top. Hence the temple’s nickname, five tower temple or Wutasi. This design is said to be Indian in origin, but no one really knows where the design of this particular temple came from. The towers on top are also finely decorated with carvings. Some of the most exquisite are not visible to guests as they are on top on or around these five pyramids. One of them is said to contain relics from Buddha.
Guests can go into the base and see a display about the importance of the temple and learn about the restoration work and symbology found on the pagoda itself.
The Gardens
The rest of the outdoor spaces at the temple I will call gardens. These are full of the larger carved stone artwork including bixis and more. One area contains funerary monuments. These are reminiscent of the larger sculptures on the spirit walk of the Ming Tombs. Another section contains a collection of tombstones of Christian priests who worked in China from the 18th century onward. It is fascinating to see the mixture of Chinese motifs with Christian symbols and Latin writing.
The Indoor Collections
In the rear hall of the temple complex, there are two exhibition spaces. One focuses on calligraphy in the carved stone art. The other on decorative elements from Beijing’s architecture in carved stone. Both are fascinating, but I’m sure you can guess my favorite of the two was the architectural elements. The collections in both spaces are comprehensive but not overwhelming due to space constraints.
Ancient Trees
In front of the pagoda, two ancient (five hundred year old) gingko trees flank the entrance. On my first visit to this temple, these trees caught my eye. I thought they must be spectacular in the fall when they are bright yellow. I was right! A few weeks later, I went back with some friends when the leaves were changing.
This is one of the extra places I would highly recommend to visitors from Beijing. I would go back again. It is located directly north of the Beijing Zoo, like right across the street from the Northwest gate. This is also a short walk from the National Library subway stop and happens to be just behind the National Indoor Stadium where the figure skating competition will be held for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
