Hanging Temple
悬空寺
The Hanging Temple.
Religion
Affiliation	Buddhism
Location
Location	Hunyuan County, Datong City, Shanxi Province
Country	China
Shown within Shanxi Show map of Shanxi Hanging Temple (China) Show map of China
Geographic coordinates	39°39′57″N 113°42′18″E / 39.66583°N 113.70500°E / 39.66583; 113.70500
Architecture
Style	Chinese architecture
Founder	Liaoran
Date established	6th century

The Hanging Temple, also Hengshan Hanging Temple, Hanging Monastery or Xuankong Temple (simplified Chinese: 悬空寺; traditional Chinese: 懸空寺; pinyin: Xuánkōng Sì) is a temple built into a cliff (75 m or 246 ft above the ground) near Mount Heng in Hunyuan County, Datong City, Shanxi Province, China. The closest city is Datong, 64 kilometres (40 mi) to the northwest. Along with the Yungang Grottoes, the Hanging Temple is one of the main tourist attractions and historical sites in the Datong area. Built more than 1,500 years ago, this temple is notable not only for its location on a sheer precipice but also because as a Buddhist temple it also contains references to the other two of the three Chinese traditional philosophies or religions (三教): Taoism, and Confucianism. The structure is kept in place with oak crossbeams fitted into holes chiseled into the cliffs. The main supportive structure is hidden inside the bedrock.^[1] The monastery is located in the small canyon basin, and the body of the building hangs from the middle of the cliff under the prominent summit, protecting the temple from rain erosion and sunlight bake.

History

According to legend, construction of the temple was started at the end of the Northern Wei dynasty by only one man, a monk named Liaoran (了然) in 491 AD. Over the next 1,400 years, many repairs and extensions have led to its present-day scale.^[2]

Overview

The entire 40 halls and pavilions are all built on cliffs which are over 30 metres (98 ft) from the ground. The distance from north to south is longer than from east to west and it becomes higher and higher from the gate in the south to north along the mountain. The temple can be divided into a northern and southern section.

Northern section

The northern section contains:^[3]

• Wufo Hall - The Hall of the Five Tathagatas
• Guanyin Hall - Hall of the bodhisattva Guanyin
• Hall of Three Religions (三教殿). The Hall of Three Religions mainly enshrines Buddhist deities as well as both Taoism and Confucianism. The statues of Śakyamuni (middle), Lao-Tze (left) and Confucius (right) are enshrined in the hall. This reflects the prevailing idea of "Three Teaching Harmonious as One" (三教合流) in the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1911).^[3]

Southern section

The southern part has three floors, it contains the following halls:^[3]

• Chunyang Palace - for worshiping Lü Dongbin - one of the Eight Immortals of Taoism
• Sanguan Hall (Hall of the Three Officials, 三官殿) - the largest hall in the temple, in which the "Three Great Emperor-Officials" (the officials of Heaven, Earth and Water) are worshiped with Ming era clay sculptures.
• Leiyin Hall (Thunder Hall) - A Buddhist hall dedicated to Buddha Śakyamuni located at the top of the southern section.

Gallery