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Sight Name:Yongquan Temple
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The Yongquan Temple is considered to be the first temple in Fujian province and one of important temples in China. It is located at the foot of the White Cloud Peak of Gushan Mountain, 455m. above sea level. The Temple lies halfway up the hill. Xianglu Peak is in front of it and the White Cloud Peak behind so that you feel you cannot see the temple while entering the hill and catch sight of the hill while going into the temple. It was said that the old temple was called the Huayan temple. In 1699, Emperor Kangxi changed its name to the Yongquan Temple and the inscribed board with its name has been hung upon the gate of the Heaven Hall. Built in the Five Dynasties (908), it comes first on the list of the five Buddhist temples in Fuzhou and still preserves large and middle-sized palaces and temple halls today. As an ancient Buddhist temple in a famous mountain, it is home to many places worth visiting. First, the conception of its construction is unique. By considering the entire mountain, it's built in the chin of the peak where experts call the "Swallow Nest". The temple seems to be hidden and visitors can not see it whether they are walking, taking a bus or a cable car. Even after entering the gate of the temple, they still cannot see the large scale Yongquan Temple. The saying goes that "Once you enter the mountain, you cannot see the temple, while entering the temple, you cannot see the mountain." Secondly, there are three invaluable state treasures being housed in the temple: The pottery pagodas with a thousand Buddhas; The ocean-bed wooden altar table and The Buddhist scripture printed with an ancient printing plate. There are "three irons" (iron tree or sago cycas, iron pot and iron wire wood) which are in the temple as well. The "pottery pagodas" refer to the pair of pottery pagodas standing before the temple on both sides. The pagodas were made in 1082 (Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD) and are 7m high. They are octagonal in style with nine stories. A total of 1,038 statues of Buddha were molded in them, 72 of them are found on the eaves with 72 pottery bells hanging. This kind of creation is seldom seen in China and therefore, considered very valuable. They are the pride of the temple and protected as state treasures. The attic, for storing canons, preserves nearly 10,000 Buddhist classic printing plates from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) onward. This is the second treasure found in the temple. The third being 657 copies of classics written by brilliant monks through the ages. The monks pricked their own fingers and wrote the classics with their blood. As for the "three irons", the first one is the sacrificial table made of iron wire wood in the Great Hall of the Buddha Temple. It is said that the table can not be burned by fire nor rotted by water and will become moist when it's overcast. The second one is the three iron trees before the temple . They are more than a thousand years old and still bloom every year. The third refers to the big iron pot (0.8m deep and 1.67m in diameter) in the kitchen of the temple. It can serve nearly one thousand people. Overall, The Yongquan Temple is about 1.7 hectares and the style of it is Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD). There are about 25 halls around the Prime Hall in which the gods is not in Indian clothing but in Chinese one. In the back of the hall, there is Tri-god statue, which is about 1.15 tons. In its prime, there were over 1,500 monks in the Yongquan Temple. There are three ways for tourists to get to the temple: by car to the gate, by cable car or by foot using the 2,145 steps, about 3,500m long. |
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