#Yong'an Temple Travel Recommendations for 2024 (Updated in Jun)
Other Places of Worship
Historical Architectures
Address:
North Lane, Gulou, Hunyuan County, Shanxi 037400
Opening times:
Open tomorrow at 8:00-18:00Closed Today
Recommended sightseeing time:
1-2 hour
Phone:
0352-8321964
Don't miss Yong'an Zen Temple! Admire the huge Yuan Dynasty murals up close
After visiting the Hanging Temple, head straight to the nearby Yong'an Zen Temple. Among the many ancient buildings and temples in Datong and its surroundings, Yong'an Zen Temple seems too low-key, but here you can enjoy the unique and huge Yuan Dynasty Shuilu (water and land) assembly murals up close! (To see the Ming Dynasty murals in Beijing's Fahai Temple, you need to make a reservation, and there are restrictions on the number of people and time.) Highlights:
1. The temple was originally built during the Jin Dynasty and rebuilt in the Yuan Dynasty. While most temples have one or three gates, Yong'an Temple's mountain gate has five openings, which is rare in Buddhist temples.
2. The four walls of the Chuanfa Zhengzong Hall are painted with heavy colors, gold leaf, and depictions of the Shuilu assembly and the ten great Ming kings (following the guide's UV flashlight, you can see the protruding gold leaf)
The total area of the murals reaches more than 180 square meters. The north wall is lined with the ten great Ming kings of Tibetan Buddhism, and the other three walls are divided into three layers, depicting the 'procession of humans and gods,' with a total of 882 Shuilu figures and 135 Shuilu stories. The characters are delicately portrayed, lifelike in form, and despite hundreds of years, the colors remain vibrant, giving a strong visual impact and artistic appeal.
Especially the fourth picture, where a Ming king tears off his mask to reveal kind and compassionate eyes... it is truly mysterious, eerie, and captivating. I feel that here one can see all the gods, Buddhas, bodhisattvas, immortals, demons, emperors, generals...
It is not easy for these murals to have been preserved so intact over hundreds of years, especially since in the 1960s, this place was used as a granary. Although the Buddha statues were removed from the hall, the murals were preserved (due to the need for mural protection, the light inside the hall is dim, but there are replicas of the murals in the eastern and western side halls, which can be appreciated more clearly).
CHRISTOPHER ANTHONY
At the foot of Mount Heng, there is also a hidden ancient temple from the Yuan dynasty
Yong'an Zen Temple is an extremely magnificent and spectacular group of classical buildings. The layout of the temple is neat, simple and spectacular, with majestic halls and exquisite murals. Locals also call it the 'Great Temple'.
Wyatt.Rivera.49
Echo@Datong Hunyuan, Yongle Zen Temple
Several years ago, I lost my soul here.
Now, revisiting the old place,
Although I still get goosebumps,
I felt a sense of melancholy when leaving.
The temple that was not open to the public back then
Now attracts many visitors.
There is also a professional guide,
And after listening to the detailed introduction of the murals,
I gained a new understanding.
The ten great Ming Dynasty kings depicted in the murals of the Mahavira Hall are:
The Buddha of the Great Sun Tathagata
The Buddha Amitabha of the West
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva
Horse-Headed Guanyin
Manjushri Bodhisattva
The Buddha Akshobhya of the East
Vairocana Bodhisattva (another name is Aksayamati)
The Buddha Ratnasambhava of the East
An emanation of Maitreya Bodhisattva
These ten great kings are depicted in the murals of Yong'an Temple with wrathful expressions, upright hair, three heads and six arms or eight arms, fierce faces, angry eyes, and bared fangs, but with kind hearts, aiming to educate sentient beings and exorcise demons.
The murals on the east and west sides, with 882 figures, blend Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism harmoniously with their vivid and natural expressions and gestures. It is a grand collection of Chinese religious deities and an extremely precious ancient painting masterpiece.
— Initial E