There are many tall and sturdy cypress trees around Kangning Temple, located at No. 3 Gubai Road, Batang County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. According to folklore, they were planted when the temple was built. There are lyrics describing ancient cypresses in Batang Xianzi, which has been passed down for thousands of years: "Batang is a happy land, where two crops are harvested in summer and autumn; temples are prosperous in Buddhism, and cypresses are surrounded by right-handed trees."
Kangning Temple, formerly known as Dingning Temple, is one of the famous Yellow Sect temples in Kham. Six hundred years ago, the Bon believers in Batang built a temple on the Hutou Mountain in the east of the city, and named it "Dange Temple". Later, due to the exclusion of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, Dange Temple moved to Zhajinding in the northeast of the county, and was renamed "Zhata Temple". Later, it converted to the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism. In the 15th century AD, the Gelug Sect was introduced to Batang, and Gushri Khan sent troops into Batang, and forced the temple to be converted into a Gelug Sect (Yellow Sect) temple. In the 16th year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1659), the fifth Dalai Lama of Tibet, who was conferred by the imperial court, sent officials to Batang to imitate the scale of the Losel Forest of Drepung Monastery in Lhasa in the original village of Mu's chieftain in Lijiang Prefecture, Yunnan Province (that is, in the Lama City). The "Zhata Temple" was expanded on the original site of Mu's Tusi Guanzhai, and he personally named the temple "Gadeng Pengdelin". Because it has been supported by the Qing government, it was given the Chinese name "Kangning Temple".
From dawn to dusk, there is an endless stream of people who come to worship. At that time, 57 ancient cypresses were planted at the front and back of the temple. These lush green cypresses surrounded the ancient temple and became a major feature of it. These ancient cypresses make people feel the vicissitudes of time at a glance, which makes people think of the boundless magic power of the temple.
According to the "Batang County Chronicle" and the inscription in front of the temple, in 1659, the fifth Dalai Lama sent Demo Living Buddha Angwangele to Batang and built a temple on the scale of Loselin in Drepung Monastery in Lhasa. He named it "Xiadeng Pengdelin". It has been 358 years ago.
According to this calculation, these ancient cypress trees should also be 358 years old. It can be said that it is a living cultural relic in Batang, a witness to the long history of Batang, a representative of the Jiangnan style of the Batang Plateau, and a part of the splendid culture of Batang.
According to field measurements by local people, the circumference of these ancient cypress trees is more than 2 meters, and the thickest tree has a circumference of 3.87 meters, which should not be achieved without growing for two or three hundred years.
After verification by Boyou, there are currently 33 intact ancient cypresses left. Among them, the east side is better preserved, with a total of 16 plants. There are 11 trees in front of the temple, and 5 trees in front of the former Batang Middle School, all with a circumference of more than 2 meters.
There are 8 trees in the south, all outside the fence of Batang Middle School, in the village road and villagers' courtyards of Qugexi Village, and the tree circumference is more than 2 meters.
There are 9 trees in the west, four trees in Kangnan Senior High School, three trees outside the fence, the other two are farther away, the farthest one is in the northwest corner, about 100 meters apart, and the circumference of the trees is also more than 2 meters .
These 358-year-old ancient cypresses have become another immortal legend of Batang.
Guanbai Route Raiders:
Self-driving route 1: Chengdu - Kangding - Xindu Bridge - Yajiang - Litang - Batang.
Airplane plus self-driving route 2: Chengdu—flight to Kangding—then transfer to a car—Xindu Bridge—Yajiang—Litang—Batang.
Plane plus self-driving route 3: Chengdu——fly to Aden—then transfer to a car—Litang—Batang.
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