Kaiyuan Temple
» Quanzhou, Fu Jian

开元寺

Formerly known as the Lotus Flower Temple and home to around a thousand monks, the Kai Yuan was originally built, legend has it, after the owner of a small mulberry grove on this site was visited in a dream by a Buddhist monk who asked him to erect a place of worship on his land. "Only if my mulberry trees bear lotus flowers," replied the owner dismissively-whereupon the lotus flowers duly appeared. In memory of this, an ancient mulberry in the temple courtyard bears the sign "Mulberry Lotus Tree".

Kaiyuan Temple was built in the year 686 during the Tang Dynasty, and is most well-known for its two pagodas which flank Daxiong (Mahavira) Hall. They were originally built using wood and bricks, but during the Song Dynasty a major reconstruction in stone was done, a project which lasted for 22 years. Called the East and West pagodas, they are probably two of the most well-preserved stone pagodas in China today.

The Temple is one of the outstanding examples of Chinese architecture and art. The most impressive parts of these pagodas are the bas-relief carvings around the niches of each storey, depicting warriors, lokapalas, guardian deities and arhats. The artistic style is a mixture of Chinese and Indian styles, not surprising since at that time cultural exchanges between China and the outside world were fairly regular. However, there is another, more practical, reason for the pagodas' unusual style. When just four of the pagodas' storeys were complete, the Chinese monk in charge of the construction work suddenly died. His replacement was a monk from India, and it was under him that the construction continued until its completion.

There are numerous other stone carvings in the temple -- figures resembling the Sphinx, animal heads and birds, dragons and tigers. Interestingly there are columns here in ancient Greek style. Many of these rare art works were once religious decorations on other buildings in Quanzhou, later moved to Kaiyuan Temple.

Attractions around » Quanzhou, Fu Jian

Natural Scene

Natural Scene

Historical Site

Historical Site

Kaiyuan Temple the largest temple of Fujian Province, is situated at ordinary West Street of Licheng area, covers an area of 78,000 square meters. With large scale, grand building and beautiful scenery has won the equal level with Lingyin Temple of Hangzhou and Guangji Temple of Beijing. The Kaiyuan Temple is a national key cultural relic unit and also the one of the "ten best good" beauty spots.



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