Abstract: Tibetan Buddhism’s incorporation into the national identity was an important representation of the relationship between religion and state in Qing Dynasty. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty profoundly recognized the political impact and political value of Tibetan Buddhist temples’ in the national process of “great unifi cation.” As a result, a range of Tibetan Buddhist temples were built throughout the empire by the orders of emperors or the imperial court. These temples not only constituted a special political field which represented “state presence,” but also embodied the development process in which the religions of border areas were incorporated into the central dynasty’s dominant ideology. By offi cially sponsoring these temples and embedding imperial elements in them,the rulers of Qing Dynasty possessed institutions through which they effectively governed non-Han ethnic groups and border areas as well as channels through which they established political identifi cation and through which non-Han leaders in border areas expressed political identifi cation.