Lingguang Temple (simplified Chinese:灵光寺; traditional Chinese: 靈光寺; pinyin: Língguāng Sì; literally “the Temple of Holy Spirits”) is the second temple of the Eight Great Sites Park. Built in the Tong Dynasty, it is more than 1300 years old now. Though ruined by war in the early years of 19th century, the Temple now looks gorgeous and wonderful. It is most famous for two spots inside: the Foya Dagoba where stores the Sakyamuni Buddha’s Tooth Relic, and the Shuixin Pavilion(literally means “Pavillion in the center of the water”).
There is an interesting story behind Foya Dagoba. Tourists could find debris of an old pagoda on the east side of the Goldfish Pool. It was destroyed together with the whole temple in August,1900. The next year, Master Sheng An, abbot of another Temple tried to rebuild the pagoda. When people were clearing up the remains, they discovered a sarcophagus, inside was a eaglewood chest, inscribed “ the Sakyamuni Buddha’s Tooth Relic, Tian-Hui 7th year”. Master Sheng An opened the chest in public, and really found the invaluable Tooth Relic. Then they built the Foya Dagoba to keep the unbelievable finding.
The Shuixin Pavilion also has her story. It lookes like an elegant ornament in the Goldfish Pool within the temple. The pool used to be a free life pool, many fancy carps were put into it duiring the Qing Dynasty(AD1636-1912). It’s said that, in an evening of a late summer, Ci Xi, the last empress of Chinese history, came to visit the pavilion. All the carps seemed to knowed that a big potato was watching them, they gathered together in front of her, skipping and jumping about. Ci Xi was so amused that she asked the accompanying eunuch to catch the biggiest one of them and wore her golden ear ring on it, announcing it to be the leader of the carps. This story spreaded quickly, more and more visitors have come to visit the pavilion and watch the fish inside the pool.
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