Construction of Bailin Temple began in 1347, during the final years of the Yuan dynasty, on open ground east of the Temple of Confucius in the Mongol capital of Dadu -- the city that would later become Beijing. The temple was the largest of its kind in Dadu, home to monks of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, which wielded enormous influence under Mongol rule. But fortune turned quickly. In 1355, the Sakya were overthrown in Tibet by local warlords, and thirteen years later the Yuan dynasty itself collapsed when rebel armies captured and sacked Dadu. The temple's structures mostly survived the violence, but the monastery fell into decades of neglect -- even after the Ming dynasty moved its capital north in 1421 and rechristened the city Beijing. Not until 1447 did the Zhengtong Emperor order a renovation.

The temple's most consequential neighbor arrived in 1694, when a palace for Prince Yong, fourth son of the Kangxi Emperor, was built directly to the west. The prince personally supervised a complete renovation of Bailin Temple in 1713, gifted it a monumental bronze bell in 1707, and in 1722 ascended the throne as the Yongzheng Emperor. That same year, he donated part of his former palace to Tibetan lamas of the Gelug school, inadvertently creating what would become the Yonghegong Lamasery -- the largest Tibetan temple outside Tibet. As the Yonghegong grew in prestige, Bailin Temple gradually slipped into its shadow, eventually becoming administratively dependent on its more famous western counterpart. Yet the Qing emperors' patronage kept Bailin in good repair. In 1758, the Qianlong Emperor ordered another lavish renovation as part of his grand project to remake Beijing.

Twice in the 19th century, foreign armies looted Beijing, and twice Bailin Temple emerged unscathed. During the Anglo-French destruction of 1860 and again during the Eight-Nation Alliance's occupation in 1900, the invading soldiers reportedly left Tibetan Buddhist temples alone. The reason was not respect but superstition -- Tibetan Buddhism's unfamiliar rituals and imagery apparently unnerved the foreign troops enough to make them pass by. This accidental protection ended after the Qing dynasty fell in 1911. With the capital moved to Nanjing, Tibetan Buddhism came to be seen as a feudal relic, and the temple entered a long decline.

The most devastating blow came in August 1966, when Red Guards attacked the temple, expelled the lamas, and reorganized the buildings into housing and work units. The Drum and Bell Towers were torn down. Stone lions, Buddhist statues, and two carved stone tablets vanished. Brick structures were built inside the temple walls, and the compound was divided among government offices and private enterprises. After the catastrophic 1976 Tangshan earthquake, refugees flooded into the area, dramatically increasing the density of the already-crowded site. By the time the government designated Bailin Temple for institutional use in 1988, it bore little resemblance to its imperial past.

The five main halls still stand along their original central axis: the main gate, the Devaraja Hall of the Heavenly Kings, the Hall of Attaining Perfection, the Mahavira Hall, and the Vimalakirti Hall. A plaque in the Kangxi Emperor's own calligraphy reading "The Everlasting Cypress Grove" still hangs on the Mahavira Hall's facade. Seven gilded Buddha images from the Ming dynasty survive in the Vimalakirti Hall, and two bronze bells cast in 1707 -- each standing 2.6 meters tall, their surfaces covered with bas-relief dragons and mantras for the dead -- still occupy an auxiliary hall. A government-funded restoration in 1992 repaired the original buildings without removing the later additions. The temple remains largely closed to the public, opening its gates only on Cultural Heritage Day, June 8. Inside its walls, the printing blocks wait -- one of the most complete sets of the Tripitaka in existence, carved during a six-year labor that began in 1733 and has outlasted every upheaval since.