Yangpai – Shield Gate

The gate, made of blue bricks and adorned with figures of a pair of dragons, the boundless Ocean, and Mount Sumeru is called Yangpai Gate or Shield Gate. Building the Yangpai Gate as a shield protection in front of the monastery established by the edict of the Manchu emperor was a demonstration of the power, rank, and privilege of the monastery. It symbolically and spiritually protects the palace from all kinds of evilness, plague, and turmoils in the cycle of the four seasons.