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This pavilion is also named the Tower of the Great Buddha. In the centre of the building is a huge statue of Maitreya, Buddha of the Future, carved out of a single trunk of white sandalwood with a total cost of 80,000 taels of silver (2,500 kilos of silver) an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1990. It is 26 metres high, 18 metres above the ground and 8 metres under the ground, and 8 metres in diameter. More than 1,000 metres of satin was used to make a yellow robe for the huge Buddha.

The temple was converted into a lamasery in 1744, but this part was not completed until 1750. Emperor Qianlong felt that the area at the rear of the lamasery was too bare and planned to build a high tower as a protective screen, but it was very difficult to find a sandalwood tree of such size. The Tibetan envoy learned of this in Beijing and told the Seventh Dalai Lama about it. Shortly afterwards, a white sandalwood tree was brought to Nepal from India by the king of Nepal. The Seventh Dalai Lama bartered this huge sandalwood tree with huge precious gems from Nepal, and sent it here as a gift to the emperor to express his thanks because Emperor Qianlong had sent troops to Tibet to put down a rebellion and turned back the power to the Seventh Dalai Lama. It took three years to ship this huge tree from the banks of the Yangtze River, through the Grand Canal and up to Beijing and another three years for carving and erection. The hall was built later. In 1750 it was entirely completed. Behind the Great Buddha, there are ten thousand small Buddhas on three stories. Hence the name, Ten-Thousand-Happiness Pavilion.

First refurbished in 1953, the temple was again restored in 1978, and opened to the public in 1981. The latest effort, which started in 1992, focused on the renewal of the Giant Buddhist Maitreya and was completed in October 1993. The two-year facelift cost more than 500,000 yuan (US$87,719) state funds most of which was spent on coating the statue with 2.5 kilos of gold foil. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Maitreya is the tallest and biggest in the world today.

Zhaofolou (Tower of the Shining Buddha)

The building was built in 1694. Qianlong's mother used to pray here. The "Five Hundred Arhats Hill" made of gold, silver, copper, iron and tin, the 18-metre-high huge Tathagata Buddha (Rulaifo) engraved from a 26-metre-long sandalwood log, and the niche for Shining Buddha carved out of nanmu (this kind of nanmu can give off a unusual scent reputed to repel mosquitoes in summer) are accredited as the three matchless masterpieces in the Lama Temple.

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