QiongZhu Temple(Bamboo Temple)

QiongZhu Temple(Bamboo Temple) is located in the beautiful wooded Yu'an Mountain, only twelve kilometers (seven miles) northwest of Kunming. It is one of the most famous Buddhist temple in Yunnan Province.

There is a legend related with the temple. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Yunnan was a separate country called 'Dali'. One day, while two brothers of royal lineage were hunting in the hills outside Kunming, they spotted a bizarre rhinoceros. With hopes of capturing it, they followed the rhinoceros deep into the woods of Yu'an Mountain where the magical animal suddenly disappeared. Just as they lost sight of the rhinoceros, the brothers saw a group of monks who were unlike any monks they had seen before. When the monks saw the brothers, they vanished in clouds leaving only their walking sticks planted in the ground. By the following day, these walking sticks had become an entire bamboo forest. The amazed brothers knew that they had met enlightened, supernatural beings and, in order to honor them, they built Qiongzhu Temple in the forest of bamboo.

Even though this is a marvelous story, it does not follow the historic record. Account of the Qiongzhu Temple dates back to the Song Dynasty(960-1279), but it was during the Yuan Dynasty (around 1280) that a highly renowned monk, who was reputed to have learned Buddhism from central China, gave his teachings that brought great fame to the temple as a Buddhist temple. After a devastating fire, the Emperor Guangxu(1875-1908) of the Qing Dynasty rebuilt the temple by adding five pavilions during the late 1880's. The temple's most outstanding artistic feature is the distinguished, finely crafted statues of the 500 Buddhist Arhats. Each Buddhist Arhats is unique and expresses its own singular inner character.

Throughout the temple are numerous inscriptions and couplets on columns and tablets. These inscriptions date back to the 1200's and give us glimpses into the life and culture of those times. Other notable features of the Qiongzhu Temple include: the statues of Four Guardian Kings in the entrance hall; the three large statues of Buddha in the main temple building and two majestic 450-year-old cypress trees that stand in the forecourt.

Qiongzhu Temple is a restorative, peaceful and beautiful attraction offering natural, artistic and cultural insight.