The Dafo Temple () is a famous Buddhist temple in
Zhejiang and has a long history of more than 1600 years. This Temple is the symbol of the
Xinchang County
Xinchang County () is a county in the east-central part of Zhejiang province, administratively under the municipal government of Shaoxing. 430,000 people live in Xinchang.
Administrative divisions
Subdistricts:
* Yulin Subdistrict (羽林街道) ...
and it attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year. Recently, the temple and its surroundings have been used as a location for movies and filming, because of its natural environment.
Local Power
During the
Cultural Revolution, locals tactfully covered the giant Buddha statues in the temple with pictures of
Mao Zedong that managed to prevent the fanatic
red guards from destroying the sacred statues, which they were inspired to do under the radical directive of "destroying all old traditions".
Big Buddha
Dafo Temple itself is constructed with five levels with several halls like the Heavenly King Hall, the Dafo (Big Buddha) Hall and the Scripture Hall. The ''Big Buddha'' is almost 15 meters in height, its nose alone is 1.5 meters and ears are 2.7 meters in size. It is believed that the statue is about 1,600 years old from the Eastern
Jin Dynasty (317-420) and is around the same time that Buddhism began spreading from India to China.
In the surrounding area is a
grotto
A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high ti ...
which is considered amongst China's earliest,
and where a number of Buddha statues are to be found, including a reclining Buddha, a waterfall and a
petrified forest
Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of ''fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. ''P ...
.
Felsverzierungen Dafo Tempel (Xinchang).jpg, Dafo Temple
新昌大佛寺石弥勒像.jpg, Big Buddha Hall and the Scripture Hall
遂昌新昌大佛寺 - 1.jpg, petrified forest
References
See also
*
Dafo Temple, Zhangye
The Dafo Temple or Great Buddha Temple () is a Buddhist temple in Zhangye, Gansu, China, notable for its gigantic reclining Buddha statue made around 1100 during the Western Xia period, which is thirty-five metres long. After a restoration project ...
*
Dafo Temple (Guangzhou)
The Dafo Temple (; literally Grand Buddha Temple) is a Buddhist temple in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Located in Yuexiu District, Dafo Temple is a grand temple with a history of more than one thousand years and was built by Emperor Liu Yan in t ...
Buddhist temples in Shaoxing
Xinchang County
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