Faxing Temple

Faxing Temple, the original site is located in the Cilin Mountain depression in Zhangzi County, and was built in the first year of the Shen Ding period of the Later Liang Dynasty during the Sixteen Kingdoms period (401 AD). The current site is located on Cui Zhuang Cuiyun Mountain in Cilin Town, southeast of Zhangzi County, Shanxi Province, covering an area of 40,000 square meters. In 1984, the Faxing Temple relocation and reconstruction project broke ground, and the reconstruction project was completed in October 1996.
Faxing Temple faces south, and the existing layout is characterized by the Tang Dynasty. The sutra building and the pagoda are in front of the hall. The central axis is lined with the mountain gate, the stupa, the Yuanjue Hall and the Bodhisattva Hall, and the two sides are the Guan Gong Hall, the Jialan Hall and the Stele Gallery. There are 6 stone pagodas in the temple, all of which are relics of the Tang Dynasty. There are 17 existing inscriptions from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, which record the history of the temple and the establishment of the temple.
The stupa, also known as the stone hall, was built in the fourth year of Xianheng in the Tang Dynasty (673 AD) and was constructed entirely of sandstone slabs. The whole shape is like a tower but not a tower, like a hall but not a hall. It is a unique example of the existing Tang Dynasty ancient pagodas in China.
The burning lamp tower was built in the eighth year of the Tang Dynasty (773 AD), and the whole body was built of bluestone, small and exquisite, with an ancient shape, also known as the Changming lamp and the lamp tower. According to relevant records, there are only three burning lamp towers in the shape of a sutra tower in China. The beautiful shape and exquisite carving are its external beauty, and the reasonable windproof function is its internal skill. It is said that the burning lamp lights the Buddha lamp, no matter the wind blows from the east, west, south, or north, the Buddha lamp will never go out. The name of the Changming lamp comes from this, which is a unique feature of Faxing Temple.
In 1988, Faxing Temple was announced by the State Council as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
Faxing Temple

Post by TheodoreLivingstondvg | Sep 19, 2024