A pagoda peeks past the Main Hall at Lingyanshan Temple in Suzhou, Jiangsu. King Fuchai of Wu built a palace on the site for his gorgeous concubines, including Xi Shi, one of the Four Beauties in Ancient China (and a spy for his enemy, King Goujian of Yue). Fuchai later converted the palace to a Daoist temple; the Buddhist temple was built on the site centuries later.
Posted to Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 11, 2025
The modern Ximing Temple, a nunnery, is located far south of town, well away from its former location near Xi'an's south gate, where Kukai stayed and Xuanzang translated scriptures after returning from India. The new one has three shiny Buddhas--Amitabha, Shakyamuni, and the Medicine Buddha--on the main altar. I liked its name, "Western Brightness," so much that I took it as my Chinese name.
Posted to Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 10, 2025
The mountain behind and the pond of water in front makes the perfect feng shui at Huating Temple, Kunming, Yunnan. The site im Xishan Mountain Forest Park was a nobleman's villa in 1063; the temple was dedicated in 1320. What we see today is the result of efforts by Master Xuyun, who became abbot in 1918.
Posted to Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 9, 2025
Two of the Four Heavenly Kings, Virupaksha (Ch. Guang Mu, "Broad Perception") holding a snake indicating control of the elements, and a wish-fulfilling jewel; and Vaishravana (Ch. Duo Wen, "Who Listens Much") with the umbrella for protection, and to block out distractions; at Guanghua Temple, Beijing.
Posted to Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 8, 2025
The small Dizang Temple in Changchun, Jilin, was under construction when I visited (and there wouldn't have been much to see even if it were complete!) Anyway, this attractive bell was hanging in the driveway, and I always associate temple bells with Dizang because he's often housed in a temple's bell tower.
Posted to Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 7, 2025
Putuo Zongcheng Temple (seen in the background here) was built around 1770 to emulate the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. It is one of the "Eight Outer Temples" built in varying styles to honor China's various ethnicities by the Manchu Emperor Qianlong at his summer resort at Chengde, Hebei.
Posted to Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 6, 2025
A waterfall next to Lower Fangguang Temple high upon Tiantai Shan, Zhejiang. Out of shot to the left is a "rooster tail" above the temple, called "Shiliang Flying Waterfall." A natural stone bridge (not open to tourists!) across those falls connects Lower to Middle Fangguang. The temple is the Bodhimanda of the 500 Arhats; legend says they used to hang out around there, occasionally appearing in great numbers to holy monks practicing in the area.
Posted to Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 5, 2025
In October of 2011, a monk friend took me on a whirlwind tour of temples in his hometown of Fu'an. He told me that this "town" of 600,000 (200,000 in the city center) has over 300 Buddhist temples! Many are no more than a single small hall. Modest-sized Zhongde Temple, he said, was the largest.
Posted to Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 4, 2025
This pyramid-like mound is all that remains of Yongning Temple Pagoda in Luoyang, Henan. The wooden structure that rested on it was once perhaps 147 meters (nearly 500 feet) tall, which would have made it then the world's tallest building. It burned in 534 in a fire that lasted for three months!
Posted to Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 3, 2025
This Thousand-Armed Guanyin at Kaiyuan Temple, Chaozhou, Guangdong, is one of four back-to-back in a hall filled with Guanyin images. It's particularly striking because, while many such Guanyin's arms are in a flat plane--like a disc--these are reaching forward dynamically, as though striving to help.
Posted to Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 2, 2025
