Zhangjia Living Buddha Stupa, Buddhist stupa in Beitou District, Taiwan
The Zhangjia Living Buddha Stupa is a traditional Buddhist monument in Beitou that preserves sacred relics within its stone structure. The exterior displays classical Buddhist design features and decorative patterns characteristic of this religious architecture.
The seventh Zhangjia Living Buddha, Lobsang Palden Tenpai Nyima, died of stomach cancer at National Taiwan University Hospital on 4 March 1957. He was cremated on the hill behind Zhonghe Chan Temple in Beitou, and the cremation yielded thousands of relics. The stupa was completed at that cremation site in 1958 and consecrated on 4 December 1959; it was registered as a historic building in 2006.
The plaque above the niche reads "章嘉活佛舍利塔", and the stupa is still used for Tibetan Buddhist rites: on 2 January 2013 devotees returned relics to the tower. The site stands behind Zhonghe Chan Temple, where both Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist ceremonies marked its 1959 consecration.
The stupa sits near the main temple grounds and is accessible via a dedicated pathway. Visitors can perform traditional clockwise circumambulation around the structure.
The 1957 cremation yielded over ten thousand relics, including one shaped like a six-petaled wheel and a piece of skull bone marked with a Buddha image. In 1996 the master's nephew removed more than six thousand relics before the stupa was nearly demolished; most are now held by the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, and devotees returned relics to the stupa on 2 January 2013.
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