Lingyan Temple in Lueyang County, Hanzhong City is a very old temple. A large number of historical sites have been perfectly preserved, and it is still the most famous ancient building with local characteristics, attracting the attention of many surrounding tourists. It is also the most famous temple in Hanzhong City. Here, I will share with you the specific strategy guide.
I saw a magical ancient temple in Lueyang County, Hanzhong City. It was built in two natural caves on the cliffs along the Jialing River. There is no Hall of Great Heroes, and the caves served as the temples of the Buddha. This is the first scene of Lueyang-Lingyan Temple.
Lingyan Temple, a thousand-year-old temple built in the Tang Dynasty, is located 3.5 kilometers south of Lueyang County, on a mountainside cliff named Yuwen Mountain.
On the mountainside on the left side of the highway
It is also a natural coincidence. Yuwen mountainside faces the direction of Jialing River, and there are two large caves in front and back. There is a lifelike scarab in the front cave, so it is named "Scarab Cave", and there is a statue of "Sleeping Buddha" in the back cave. Later, after the temple was built, many stone arhats were carved, so it is called "Luohan Cave".
In the Tang Dynasty, it was the time when Buddhism spread to the Central Plains and flourished. Lueyang, which is located at the junction of Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan provinces and runs through the Jialing Ancient Road, was also deeply influenced by Buddhist culture. Monks were ushered in the cave around the waist of Yuwan Mountain, and Lingyan Temple, the most famous Buddhist temple in Lueyang's history, was born.
However, there are no monks in Lingyan Temple today, and it has become a museum with an ancient cave temple as its shell. However, antique buildings and wonderful cave landscape are still a major attraction.
From the mountain gate next to Lingyan Road to the temple gate, you have to take two or three zigzag bends, pass through the "Yaowang Cave" dedicated to the medicine king Sun Simiao, and then go to the temple gate, which is also the ticket inspection office.
going up the mountain
the gate and the ticket office
after entering the scenic spot, it is the office building of the museum.
The office building
passes through this flat land and arrives at the "Temple of the King of Heaven", where the four heavenly kings are left and right respectively.
The Temple of the Heavenly King
Crossing this building, you arrive at the path close to the cliff. Soon, you will see a door, which was built under a huge sunken stone wall. Behind the door is the first cave, that is, the "Golden Tortoise Cave", where the Hall of Ursa is located.
This tortoise cave is very big, with a width of more than 5 meters, a depth of about 1 meters, and a height of 25 meters, with an area of 5, square meters. I don't think it's a natural fairy cave when I stand outside the cave. The ancient people regarded this cave as a "quadrangle" in a unique way. A three-story "Wangjiang Tower" was built right in front of the cave, and annex halls were built on the left and right sides.
Only the Hall of the Great Hero was not built, and only a niche was set up in the cave to worship three Buddha statues, among which was Pilu Zena Buddha, which was said to have been molded in the sixth year of Emperor Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty (1511) and was the "first Buddha in southern Shaanxi".
The Buddha sits around the "Daxiong Hall"
There is a path leading to the depths of the cave, which is very low and dark. Go up and climb a step, and soon you will see a stone turtle lying in the depths of the cave, which is the "golden turtle".
Scarabs
Come out of the Scarabs Cave, walk along the cliff, and soon arrive at the back cave "Luohan Cave". Luohan Cave is much smaller than the Scarab Cave. It is just an ordinary cave, and houses can't be built inside. There are many "Luohan" in this cave, and Maitreya is sitting in the middle. There is a stalactite column in the depths of the abode of fairies and immortals, and there is a beautiful name called "Yuzhu". A sleeping Buddha is lying in the cave with a colorful back.
The sunken place is the "Luohan Cave"
Lingyan Temple is near the Jialing River. The ancient Jialing Road passes in front of the temple, and pedestrians from Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan provinces come and go here. In addition, it is only seven miles away from Lueyang County. Therefore, it has become a scenic spot as early as the Tang Dynasty. It is said that Wu Zetian, Du Fu, Wu Daozi, Su Shi and Yu Youren all visited here. Throughout the ages, the stone walls inside and outside the cave of Lingya Temple have also been engraved with poems and inscriptions by literati, and there are still more than 13 places, so it enjoys the reputation of "small forest of steles in southern Shaanxi".
Below Lingyan Temple is Lingyan Road, opposite to baoji-chengdu railway, and in the middle is Jialing River after the rainstorm.
In this dizzying inscription, there are two treasures of the town hall, one of which is the cliff stone carving Ode to _ Pavilion in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which, like Ode to Shimen on the Shimen plank road in Hanzhong, also records the road construction in the Han Dynasty, praising Li Hui, the commander of Wudu at that time. This inscription is now a famous treasure in calligraphy, even though Japanese people have traveled across the ocean to visit it.
There are many stone tablets. I don't know which one is Ode to a Pavilion.
The other one is a stone tablet of "Regulations and Orders" in the eighth year of Chunxi in the Southern Song Dynasty (1181), which is engraved with the traffic rules at that time: "Avoid being cheap, avoid being long, avoid being heavy and avoid coming", which is said to be the earliest found in China.
Carved ceremonial stele near Jialing Square in the county seat
The cliff stone carving of Lingyan Temple was announced as a national key cultural relic protection unit in 26, but the whole scenic spot of Lingyan Temple Museum is only 2 years, and the full admission price is only 8 yuan, which is unexpected. Generally speaking, this is a scenic spot worth seeing in Lueyang and even Hanzhong. If you go to Lueyang, you must not miss it.
Raiders: From Lueyang County to Lingyan Temple, you can walk 3.5 kilometers along Lingyan Road in Jialing River Canyon, or you can take the shuttle bus from "County-Lesuhe" and get off at Lingyan Temple Station.