Fo Guang Temple Travel Guide

Foguang Temple is located on the foot of Mt. Wutai. The buildings, statues and murals of Tang Dynasty in the temple are of great historical and artistic value.

Foguang Temple was first built in Xiaowen Emperor period of North Wei Dynasty (471-499 AD). And in Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), Foguang Temple was one of the most famous Buddhist temple in China, we could find many history record about Foguang Temple at the time, and the temple on the Tang Dynasty mural of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. Now the buildings you see in the temple was rebuilt since 847 AD Xuanzong Emperor period of Tang Dynasty.

East Hall
East Hall is the main hall of Foguang Temple, it is with classic Tang Dynasty architecture -- "Large bucket arch, long eaves". There are seven rooms in width and four in depth, the cross section of the bucket arch is 210*300 CM, it is 10 times compare to the late Qing Dynasty (around 1900 AD); the eaves of East Hall is 3.96 meters up to the main wall which could not be found in the wood structure buildings after Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). Further more, the top of the main hall frame is a triangular A-frame. And the East Hall frame structure can be listed first in the existing wood structure buildings in China.
There are 35 painted Buddhist sculptures of Tang Dynasty, include 33 large Sakyamuni, Maitreya, Amitabha, Bodhisattva, Manjusri Bodhisattva and Vajra; they are 1.95 to 5.3 meters high. And two smaller sculptures of temple benefactor and abbot.
Further more, there are more than 10 square meters murals about Buddhist stories on walls.

Manjuist Hall and Founder of Buddhism Tower
Manjuist Hall was built in Jin Dynasty (1137 AD) for worship Manjusri Bodhisattva. Besides, there are colored painting sculptures of five hundred arhats on the hall.
Founder of Buddhism Tower is the only ancient tower from North Wei Dynasty (471-499 AD), the temple founding period.