Dafo Temple (Xinchang)

Dafo Temple
Dafo Temple
大佛寺
	Shanmen
Religion
Affiliation	Buddhism
Sect	Chan Buddhism
Location
Location	Xinchang County, Zhejiang, China
	Shown within Zhejiang
Geographic coordinates	29°29′46″N 120°53′05″E / 29.496°N 120.8846°E
Architecture
Style	Chinese architecture
Founder	Tanguang (曇光)
Date established	345–356
Completed	1871–1908 (reconstruction)

The Dafo Temple (Chinese: 大佛寺; pinyin: Dàfó Sì) 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 and it attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year. Recently,^[when?] the temple and its surroundings have been used as a location for movies and filming, because of its natural environment.^{[citation needed]}

Local Power[edit]

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[edit]

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.^{[citation needed]}

In the surrounding area is a grotto which is considered amongst China's earliest,^[1] and where a number of Buddha statues are to be found, including a reclining Buddha, a waterfall and a petrified forest.