Da Xing Shan Temple is located in Xi'an, China and has been considered a birthplace for Buddhism in the country.
The temple has a history that spans more than 1,600 years, dating back to its construction in the Western Jin Dynasty. Later, during the Tang Dynasty, many Buddhist texts from India were translated at the temple and then promulgated throughout the country.
Much of the temple was desecrated during the later Tang Dynasty when Buddhism was persecuted by the emperor Wuzong. But repairs and expansions have been made since then.
Many of the buildings currently on the site were constructed during the Qing Dynasty. There are numerous statues devoted to Buddhism on the site, with figures of giant elephants and Bodhisattvas scattered throughout. Believers can pay their respects at the various temple buildings.
Borobudur is a Mahayan Buddhist temple complex located near the modern city of Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. The huge monument, a popular place of pilgrimage for Buddhists, comprises six square platforms, topped by three circular platforms, decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. It is estimated to have been erected over a 75-year period, ending somewhere around 800 AD during the time of the Sailendra Dynasty of Java, under the leader Samaratungga. Its architect, Gundaharma, is a largely mythical character, thus his efficacy remains uncertain. The monument remained a popular place of worship for the island's Buddhist population - even under Hindu rule. Yet a number of volcanic eruptions around 1000 AD, and the shifting of power to East Java, meant Borobudur's prominence waned. And many historians believe the island's change of religion to Islam around the fifteenth century meant that the site became derelict.
Today only 492 cave shrines survive and only around 30 are open to the public. They sit at the edge of the Gobi desert in the northwest of China at a key trading post and cultural hive along the Silk Road, 25km southeast of the center of Dunhuang.
The network of shrines contain some of the best preserved examples of Buddhist art and sculpture spanning a period of 1,000 years and is regarded as holding one of the most extensive collections of Buddhist paraphernalia in the world, with clay stucco murals adorning some 45,000 square meters of inner wall and ceiling, earning the complex the more popular name of 'The Caves of the Thousand Buddhas'.
Today, the site is the subject of an ongoing archaeological project.
The Yungang caves are located in the valley of the Shi Li river at the base of the Wuzhou Shan mountains in the Chinese province of Shanxi. They are ancient Buddhist temples which provide an exceptional example of Chinese stone carving from the 5th and 6th centuries and one of the three most important ancient sculptural sites in China. (The others are Longmen and Mogao.) The site is composed of 252 grottoes with over 51,000 Buddha statues. Buddhism had been introduced to this area via the ancient North Silk Road.
The work on the first period of carving lasted until 465 AD, (these grottoes are now known as caves 16–20.) In a second construction phase from around 471 AD to 494 AD, the twin caves 5/6, 7/8, and 9/10, caves 11, 12, and most likely, 13, were all built under the supervision of the imperial court. The imperial patronage ended in 494 AD with the move of the Wei court to the new capital of Luoyang. All other caves emerged under private patronage in a third construction period, lasting until 525, when the construction ended due to uprisings in the area.
One of China's Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains, Mount Emei is under the patronage of bodhisattva Samantabhadra, known in Chinese as Puxian. Historical documents suggest that the mountain was famous for the teaching and practice of martial arts in its temples during the 16th and 17th centuries. Shaped by the ancient volcanic activity in the region, the mountain has influenced the architecture of the temples and monasteries built on it, of which there are around 70. Many of them are terraced to accommodate the steep incline of the mountain's slopes whilst some, like the Leiyinsi structures are raised on stilts.
The most famous site in the area is the Leshan Giant Buddha, which dates from the time of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Carved out of a cliff face, the 71 metre-high buddha stands at the confluence of the Qingyi, Dadu and Minjiang rivers, looking towards Mount Emei. Haitong, the monk who began work on the statue, is said to have gouged his eyes out as a sing of piety and sincerity when funding for the project became scarce and the work was completed by his followers some ninety years after it was begun.
