Located in Hunyuan County, Shanxi Province, 65 km away from Datong City, the Hanging Temple, as a national key cultural relics protection unit, is China’s only temple that combines Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism together. Built in the late Northern Wei Dynasty (about 1400 years ago), the Hanging Temple was renovated regularly through the years. The Taoist altar in Pin Cheng (or Datong City today), was moved to the current site in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and then a group of ancient craftsmen began the construction of the Hanging Temple on the condition that neither the crowing of cocks nor barks of dogs could be heard here. The temple is 50 m high from the ground with exquisite, impressive, unique design, which reflects the traditional building style of our countr
y. The old temple hangs between two abrupt cliffs deep in a great valley and the top of the cliff resembles a giant umbrella that protects the temple from rain. Even during flood time, the water on the foot of the mountain could never reach the height of the temple. High mountains around also decrease sunlight time for it. It is with this superior geographical position that the Hanging temple can be sufficiently protected and well preserved to this day. Altogether there are 40 halls with more than a dozen very thick wood pillars. People tend to take it for granted that the pillars are what support the whole temple, however, the truth is the real stressed members are the beams planted in the rock. The exquisite building style refers to the fact that the temple was constructed in the light of concrete circumstances, and the peculiar nature of the cliff was fully taken advantage of by the designer, therefore the flat-faced layout of general temples was changed into a three-dimensioned one. The gate to the monastery, bell and drum tower, the main hall and side halls are all excellent and formidable in terms of the creativity. More than a dozen figure of Buddhist are worshipped inside the various halls of the temple. In the year 735 (Kaiyuan 23rd year in Tang Dynasty), Li Po, the famous Chinese ancient poet, wrote two characters – Zhuang Guan (grand sight) on the cliff after paying a visit here. What’s more, the great traveler in Ming Dynasty called Xu Xiake also regarded the Hanging Temple as a magnificent spectacle.
Related posts:
