Lingyin Temple

Founded in 328 CE by the Indian monk Huili during the Eastern Jin dynasty, Lingyin Temple is one of the oldest and most prominent Chan (Zen) Buddhist temples in China, with nearly 1,700 years of continuous history in Hangzhou's Xihu District. The temple has been destroyed and rebuilt at least sixteen times over the centuries, most severely after Taiping Rebellion-era damage in the 19th century, with the present halls largely dating to Qing and 20th-century reconstruction, including a major restoration ordered in 1953. The Grand Hall of the Great Hero (Daxiong Baodian) houses a 24.8-metre gilded camphor-wood statue of Sakyamuni Buddha seated on a lotus throne, carved in 1956 from a single tree trunk based on Tang-dynasty prototypes and among the tallest indoor sitting Buddha statues in China. The Heavenly Kings Hall at the entrance holds a laughing Maitreya Buddha flanked by the Four Heavenly Kings and the guardian Skanda. The complex is arranged along a traditional north-south axis through a wooded valley shared with the adjacent Feilai Feng grottoes, planted with old camphor and gingko trees. Lingyin remains an active monastery with resident monks and daily chanting services, so its curatorial character is that of a living site of worship rather than a static museum, and visitors typically move sequentially through the halls following the traditional pilgrimage route from the entrance gate to the rear terraces.