Qixia Temple

CHINA, Jiangsu, Nanjing

Located at the foot of Qixiashan, it is one of the ancestral temples of the Three Treatise school. In 483 during the Southern Qi dynasty, Ming Sengshao converted his villa into a temple and invited Chan Master Fadu to serve as the abbot. Emperor Gaozu (reigned 618–626) of the Tang dynasty added over 40 buildings. Master Jianzhen lived here before traveling to Japan. It was rebuilt in 1392 during the Ming dynasty, but was destroyed by fire in 1855. It was rebuilt in 1908 by Master Zongyang with later expansions. The temple was listed as a key Buddhist temple in the Han region of China in 1983.
The main buildings of the temple include the main temple gate, Maitreya Hall, Vairocana Hall, sutra repository, Jade Buddha Hall, Master Duhai Hall, and relic pagoda. The Vairocana Hall has a double-eave hip-and-gable roof and houses a 5 m high gilt statue of Vairocana Buddha. Statues of the Twenty Heavenly Beings, each 2 m high, are lined up along either side of the hall. The sutra repository has a collection of palm leaf manuscripts, as well as over 8,000 fascicles of Buddhist scriptures. Master Duhai Hall houses a statue of Master Jianzhen, as well as documents related to his life. Just outside the main temple gate is a stele composed by Emperor Gaozong (reigned 649–683) of the Tang dynasty, and written by the famous calligrapher Gao Zhengchen. It is considered to be one of the more famous steles in the Jiangnan (region south of the Yangtze River). The hills behind the temple contain the Qixia Grottoes, featuring numerous Buddha niches and images.