Huayan Temple is located in the southwest of the ancient city of Datong. It was built in the seventh year of Chongxi of the Liao Dynasty, that is, 1038 AD. It was named according to the Buddhist classic "Huayan Sutra" "The flower of compassion will bear the fruit of solemnity". Later, the temple was destroyed by war and rebuilt in 1140 AD, the third year of Jin Tianjuan's reign. After hundreds of years of vicissitudes, Huayan Temple was rebuilt during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and most of the buildings changed their structures.
Huayan Temple faces west to east and has more than 30 individual buildings such as the Mountain Gate, Puguangming Hall, Mahavira Hall, Bojiajiang Hall, and Huayan Pagoda, covering an area of 66,000 square meters.
Huayan Temple Gate
Mainxiong Hall
Mainxiong Hall
Huayan Pagoda
Pu Guangming Hall
Huayan Temple is divided into upper temple and lower temple. The main building of the upper temple is the Main Hall. The Main Hall is one of the largest existing Buddhist temples in my country during the Liao and Jin Dynasties. The main hall is nine rooms wide and five rooms deep, with a single area of 1,559 square meters. There are five Buddhas in the center of the hall. The main hall of the lower temple is the Boji Temple. There are 29 colorful sculptures from the Liao Dynasty on the Buddhist altar. There are 38 two-story pavilion-style scripture cabinets and five "Tiangong pavilions" in the hall. There are more than 1,700 letters and more than 18,000 volumes of Buddhist scriptures from the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the Sutra Pavilion.
Bojiajiao Tibetan Hall
Huayan Pagoda
Huayan Temple Scene
Huayan Pagoda
In 1961, Huayan Temple was announced by the State Council as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units, and is now a national 4A-level tourist attraction. The entrance fee to Huayan Temple is 65 yuan/person. It can be reached by taking bus No. 15, 2 and 30 from Datong Railway Station .
