Which temple is the most famous in Hangzhou?

The most famous temple in Hangzhou is Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou.

Lingyin Temple, an ancient Buddhist temple in China, also known as Yunlin Temple, is located in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, with its back to Beifeng and facing Feilai Peak. Built in the first year of Xianhe in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (326), it covers an area of about 87,000 square meters. The founder of Lingyin Temple is West Indian monk Huili. In the Southern Dynasties, Liang Wudi granted land and expanded it. Qian Liu, King of wuyue in the Five Dynasties, asked Master Yongming to give him the name Lingyin New Temple. During the Jiading period in Song Ningzong, Lingyin Temple was known as one of the "Five Mountains" in the south of Zen.

During the reign of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the Buddhist monk Lingyin raised funds for reconstruction. It took 18 years to build the temple, and its scale jumped to the top of the southeast. In the 28th year of Emperor Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (1689), Emperor Kangxi was given the name "Yunlin Temple" when he visited the south.

Lingyin Temple is mainly composed of Tianwang Hall, Daxiong Hall, Pharmacist Hall, Dharma Hall and Huayan Hall, with 500 Arhats Hall, Jigong Hall, Huayan Pavilion, Dabei Building and Abbot Building on both sides. The current abbot is Master Guangquan.

Main attractions of Lingyin Temple

Feilaifeng is the first of the five mountains of Zen. Feilaifeng stone carving is an important work in the southern grottoes of China. These statues carved on limestone went from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to the Ming Dynasty. Of the more than 470 statues, 335 are well preserved and precious.

Tianwang Temple is about 24m long and15m wide. The statue of Maitreya is enshrined in the middle of the shrine facing the mountain gate, sitting on the futon with a bare chest and abdomen, smiling. The statue of Wei Tuo, the protector of Buddhism, is enshrined in the niche with his back to the mountain gate. It is two and a half meters high, wearing a golden helmet and armor, and looks radiant. This statue carved with camphor wood is a precious cultural relic of the Southern Song Dynasty, with a history of more than 700 years.

The Hall of Ursa Major, formerly known as Huang Jue Hall, is the second hall with a single story and triple eaves, about 24 meters long and 33.6 meters high. In the center of Ursa Major Hall is a 24.8-meter-high lotus statue of Sakyamuni. This statue is "magnificent in appearance" and "vivid in spirit", which makes people amazed. It is one of the largest camphor-wood sitting buddhas in China and a rare religious work of art.

Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Lingyin Temple