Chongshan Temple

Chongshan Temple is located in Shangguan Lane in the east of Taiyuan, only one road away from the Shanxi Provincial Folk Museum, and in front of the gate is a rather quiet alley.

The temple was first built in the late Sui Dynasty and early Tang Dynasty. It was originally the residence of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty. In the 14th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1381 A.D.), the third son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, built it on the basis of the original temple in memory of his mother, Empress Ma. Expansion was carried out. After the expansion, the scale of the temple is quite large, and its appearance is also very prominent. In the third year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1864), Chongshan Temple was destroyed by a fire, and now only the Great Compassion Hall, the mountain gate, the bell tower and the east and west wing rooms remain.

Chongshan Temple is now the seat of the Buddhist Association of Shanxi Province. The whole temple has red walls and green tiles, simple and elegant, and a pair of copper lions in front of the temple gate were all cast in the Ming Dynasty. The Great Compassion Hall is the main building in the temple. This is a typical Ming Dynasty style building. The three statues in the hall are more famous. Unique in shape, gorgeous in color and smooth in clothing lines, it is a rare art treasure of the Ming Dynasty. There are also a large number of Song, Yuan and Ming scriptures in Chongshan Temple, which are of great value.