Lingyin Temple

Lingyin was founded in 326 by an Indian monk and has been destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly, most recently in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; it remains one of the largest and wealthiest Buddhist temples in China, with halls rising up a wooded slope and a twenty-four-metre camphor-wood Sakyamuni in the main hall. In front of it, the Feilai Feng, the peak that flew here, is a limestone outcrop carved between the tenth and fourteenth centuries with around three hundred and forty rock sculptures in niches and caves, including a laughing Maitreya with attendants that is among the best-known Buddhist carvings in southern China. The stream and grottoes are walked before reaching the temple.

History

Tradition says an Indian monk known in Chinese as Huili founded the temple in the Eastern Jin dynasty, and it was famous in the Jiangnan region from the start. At its height under the Wuyue Kingdom (907-978) it had 18 pavilions, 72 halls, more than 1,300 dormitory rooms and over 3,000 monks, and many of the carvings of Feilai Feng date from then; under the Southern Song it was one of the ten great Chan temples of Jiangnan, it has been rebuilt at least sixteen times, and much of what stands today was restored in the late Qing (Wikipedia, Lingyin Temple).

What's there

• The Feilai Feng carvings - some 340 rock sculptures in the limestone outcrop.
• The laughing Maitreya - the famous Song carving among the grottoes.
• The camphor-wood Buddha - the twenty-four-metre figure in the main hall.
• The hillside halls - the temple rising in stages up the slope.

When to go

March to May and September to November; Hangzhou is hot and humid in summer. Buddhist festival days and holidays bring very large crowds. Early morning is much calmer.

Before you go

Two tickets are needed, one for the scenic area and one for the temple itself. Crowds are heavy and incense smoke thick. Photography inside halls is restricted. Some carvings have been damaged over the centuries.

Nearby

West Lake lies east; the Longjing tea villages are south.

Key facts