On the slopes of Puji Mountain, five kilometers northwest of Lijiang's historic center, Puji Monastery stands as a physical record of spiritual endurance and cultural synthesis. Founded in 1771 by the first Living Buddha, Dengseng, this Karma Kagyu monastery breaks traditional Chinese architectural rules. It faces east to align with the mountain slope, turning its back on the conventional south-facing layout.

The heart of the complex is the Great Hall, completed in its current form during a major reconstruction between 1936 and 1937. The fourth Living Buddha, Shenglu, funded this work using donations gathered during his travels to Kunming, Nanjing, and Chongqing, where he conducted prayers for national protection during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The roof of the hall is clad in forty-six square meters of brass copper tiles, which catch the high-altitude sunlight with a warm, metallic gleam. It is the only surviving copper-tiled building in Yunnan Province.

Visitors ascend to the hall via a twelve-step staircase flanked by smooth white marble balustrades. The structure rests on a platform over four meters high, decorated with ten white marble relief carvings. Above the entrance hangs a wooden plaque bearing the inscription "Lingyu Ciyun," calligraphed by Lin Sen, the President of the Nationalist Government who honored Shenglu with patriotic titles. Near the mountain gate, two stone tablets inscribed in Mongolian and Han Chinese scripts preserve these official decrees.

The physical environment of the monastery connects the human past with the natural world. In the main courtyard, two Yunnan wild cherry blossom trees, planted during the founding of the temple in the Qianlong era, reach seven meters in height. Their thick, gnarled trunks require multiple people to encircle. Every spring, their vivid red blossoms open alongside the white pear orchards surrounding the grounds, while a natural spring southwest of the temple bubbles continuously through the seasons. Today, three courtyards survive, preserving a quiet space where the sound of running water and the weight of carved stone invite quiet reflection.