Taiping Temple is located on Huangsi Road, Heping District, Shenyang. It is about 100 meters south of Shisheng Temple. It was built in the 46th year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1707 AD). Originally, it was the family temple of the Xibe ethnic group and is now a national key cultural relic protection unit.
In the 46th year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign (1707 AD), the Xibe people living in Shengjing raised funds to build it. When it was first built, there were only five main halls. Through repairs and expansions in successive dynasties, it gradually became a relatively large-scale temple.
Taiping Temple faces south. It has two courtyards, the front and the back. Inside the temple, Buddha statues such as Sakyamuni, the Eight Great Bodhisattvas, and the Four Heavenly Kings are mainly enshrined. In the middle of the main hall, there hangs a plaque with four gilded characters ‘Xibe Family Temple’, which was presented by Sepuheng’e, a Xibe deputy commander guarding Shengjing during the Xianfeng period.
In front of the main hall, there used to be steles in Xibe and Chinese. Now only the Xibe stele remains. The stele details the historical facts of the Xibe ethnic group’s migration and incorporation into the Eight Banners, as well as the establishment process of Taiping Temple.
After liberation, the Shenyang Municipal People’s Government funded the renovation of Taiping Temple and announced it as a municipal-level cultural relic protection unit in 1985. At the same time, the stele recording the history of Taiping Temple and the Xibe ethnic group was listed as a national first-class cultural relic and is now collected in Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum.
The Xibe Ethnic Group and the Westward Migration Festival: The Xibe ethnic group is an ancient ethnic group in northern China. They are good at fighting. After being incorporated into the Eight Banners, due to military needs, they migrated to Shengjing and other places for garrison and established a family temple in Shengjing as a place for sacrifices and gatherings.
In the 29th year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign (1764 AD), the imperial court, in order to strengthen the border defense force in Yili, Xinjiang, dispatched 1,020 Xibe officers and soldiers to Yili to defend the border. On the 18th day of the fourth lunar month of that year, more than 1,000 border defense soldiers, their families, and villagers gathered at Taiping Temple in Shengjing. They slaughtered sheep to sacrifice to their ancestors and gods, praying for a safe journey. Since then, the Xibe people have regarded the 18th day of the fourth lunar month as the ‘Westward Migration Festival’, and celebrate it every year.
Opening hours: It is open from 9:00 – 16:00 throughout the year.
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