Dear Friends, Since December of last year I have made daily posts--I don't think I ever missed one. I'm tired, so I'll be slowing down in September, with occasional posts here and there. Thanks for your support! If you want to see what else I'm doing, check out my Temple Tales Newsletter (in bio).

Two Buddhas, seen in the grottoes at Xingguo Temple on Qianfo Shan ("Thousand-Buddha Mountain") in Ji'nan, Shandong. The temple is located about halfway up the hillside. Aside from several halls with some fine statues, there are numerous small grottoes with statues carved into the native rock.

Main Hall, Qingyun Temple, Zhaoqing, Guangdong--mostly unrestored and therefore beautiful. Founded in 1633, the temple is now inside the lush Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve, China's first (est. 1956), which is bisected by the Tropic of Cancer. The stroll down the mountain is delightful.

This stone lion looked amazing in golden hour light at Jingju Temple, Ji'an, Jiangxi. The temple was the seat of Qingyuan Xingsi (660-740), a claimant to be the Seventh Patriarch of Chan (Zen). Three of Chan's five recognized schools can be traced through him: the Caodong, Yunmen, and Fayan Schools.

This dragon is on the Nine Dragon Wall in Datong, Shanxi, built to screen a prince's palace in 1392. The palace, alas, is long gone, but the wall remains, and at 45.5 meters (150 ft) long and eight meters (26 ft) high, it is advertised as China's oldest and largest screen wall made of glazed tile.

The Bronze Hall is near the rear of Xiantong Temple, Wutai Shan, Shanxi. Its inside is lined with small bronze figures of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. Built in the Ming Dynasty, it is one of only three bronze temple halls in all of China. The pagodas that stand before it are bronze as well.

The gateway to Bukenqu Guanyin Yuan on Putuoshan in Zhejiang. The temple's founding story tells of a Japanese monk who tried to take a statue of Guanyin back to Japan; the statue would not leave, giving the temple its name: Bukenqu, the "refused to leave" Guanyin.

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The pagoda at Longhua Temple in Shanghai stands outside the front gate, and is its most famous feature. It is the only ancient pagoda remaining in the city; while the foundations may be older, and there have been extensive repairs, the core of the current structure dates to 977.

The pond in the background once was home to two ancient turtles in the West Garden of Xiyuan Jiechuang Temple in Suzhou, Jiangsu. An unsourced statement on Wikipedia says, "One turtle died in 2007 at the age of 400, and the other has disappeared." All we have left is this statue.

The Buddha and Arhats in the grottoes behind Qixia Temple in Nanjing, Jiangsu. You can clearly see that the heads--replaced after vandalism--are a different color. The area is the so-called "Thousand Buddhas Cliff" (started in 484), which has grottoes actually containing 515 statues and 294 shrines.

The "True Relic Pagoda" at Famen Temple in Xi'an, Shaanxi, collapsed in 1981; relics, including a finger bone of the Buddha, were found in a vault underneath it in 1987. The relic is now on display in a modern (and, IMO, "ugly") structure nearby. The reconstructed pagoda here was completed in 1988.

The pool is the centerpiece at Guanyin Temple, Shenzhen, Guangdong. New halls were going up around it when I visited in 2011. It's located not far from one of Shenzhen's best folk temples, Fenghuang Shan, or "Phoenix Mountain" in Fuyong Town, which is in turn quite near Shenzhen Airport.

The streetside gate at lovely Tongjiao Temple in Beijing, the city's only nunnery. A place of strict discipline, it is open to the public only on new moon and full moon. The ultra-urban location was used as a police station during the Cultural Revolution, but was restored and re-opened in 1981.

Dhrtarashtra, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, in the then-newly-built Huayan Temple in Guangzhou, Guangdong. The Chinese call him Chi Guo for "supporting the country." His lute can bring comfort and represent harmony, but also its TWANG! can raise a wind, fanning fires which destroy the enemy camp.

The Mountain Gate at Guangyuan Temple, Chengde, Hebei, is closed with adobe. The abandoned temple's grounds are used as a plant nursery. Built by the lama in charge of nearby Puning Temple in 1780 under Emperor Qianlong, it was one of the "Eight Outer Temples" of Chengde. Few of its halls remain.

The "Soul Cow" at Zhiti Huayan Temple in Ningde, Fujian. It's said that the cow went down on its knees whenever anyone said "Namo Amitofo" (the name of Amitabha Buddha) to it. It had been saved from butchering and brought to the temple for refuge--and this was as recent as the 1980s!

The White Horse at Baima Temple in Luoyang, Henan, represents one of those who gave the temple its name: "Baima" is Chinese for "White Horse." It is said that this was the lodging for the first two official missionaries from India (who rode white horses); it would thus be China's oldest temple.

This Spirit Door at Longshan Temple, Jinjiang, Fujian, shows the current building's originally-Daoist design. Now converting to a more Buddhist style, Longshan has a long history of Buddhism, having fostered many by the same name throughout the world--no fewer than five across the straits in Taiwan.

These small Buddhas are waiting to be placed in a repainted 10,000 Buddha Hall at Tiantai Temple on Jiuhuashan, Anhui. The highest temple (though not the highest peak) on Jiuhua, Tiantaisi is said to be where the Korean monk Jin Qiaojue built his hut when he came up the mountain to practice in 719.

I had started my morning by climbing up to Roushen Dian on Jiuhuashan, Anhui. On the opposite descent, I stopped in at Shangchantang Temple. When I reached the courtyard of tiny Jingjie Jingshi, it was fairly crowded--a sign I was nearing the main road at bottom of the trail.

Erzu (Second Patriarch's) Temple in Yuexi County, Anhui, is one of the most remote I've been to. It sits at the foot of Sikong Mountain. The mountain is called "Sikong Yuan" as it was the retreat of an official named Chunyu Dasikong, from the time of Confucius--testimony to how remote it is.

Gate to the Dragon Spring at the quaint Longquan (Dragon Spring) An Nunnery in Badachu Park, Beijing. The temple dates to the 1420s, and the nuns sell simple snacks in an outdoor dining area above the titular Dragon Spring. There is also a fine collection of very old statues in a dilapidated hall.

The Thousand-Armed Guanyin at Kaifu Temple, Changsha, Hunan. A general named Ma Yin (852-930) became "King of Chu" and built his palace here. His son, Ma Xifan, donated the land in 927 to a monk named Baoning, who built the first temple. It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times since.

In a clever use of limited space, Jinge Temple, Wutai Shan, Shanxi, arranged its 500 Arhats in the rafters over the floor of the main hall. Impressive--and a little creepy. The temple is associated with the Indian Vajrayana master Amoghavajra, and was built to promote devotion to Manjushri.

The 250-foot (75.3 m) stupa (properly called the "Great White Pagoda") at Tayuan Temple is the symbol of Wutai Shan, Shanxi. Built in 1302, it originally belonged to nearby Xiantong Temple. In 1407 it was separated and became a temple in its own right, named simply Tayuan, the "Pagoda Compound."

The entry to Huiji Temple, Putuoshan Zhejiang, seems almost defensive: a long narrow corridor with right-angle turns as though to repel an invading army. It approaches the temple's front gate through a forested area, from the top of the famed Xiangyun (Fragrant Cloud) Road, the traditional approach.

The buildings at Yuanming Jiangtang in Shanghai look like office buildings, but some fine statues inside include this Jade Buddha. It was founded in 1934 as a study center by Master Yuanying of Ningbo's Tiantong Temple. Yuanying was also the first chairman of the Chinese Buddhism Association.

A rakshasa or demon is crushed under the foot of Virudhaka in the Heavenly Kings' Hall at Wenshu Yuan in Chengdu, Sichuan. These figures represent the "crushing" of unhelpful desires. They also sometimes serve to hold up the unsupported leg of a statue.

The tomb of the parents of Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan (Zen) stands at Guo'en Temple, Xincheng, Zhaoqing, Guangdong. He was born a short walk away in what is now called "Sixth Patriarch Village." After a lifelong association with this temple, he spent his last years and passed away here.

I enjoyed seeing these two old men seated in the Mountain Gate at Yushan Xingfu Temple in Changshu, Jiangsu. It sits at the foot of Yushan, which is named for a rather shadowy figure known as Yu Zhong who lived in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (c 1600-771 BCE); his tomb is found on the mountain.

The Konghai Memorial is dedicated to a Japanese monk also known as Kukai or Kobo Daishi, who studied at Qinglong (Green Dragon) Temple in Xi'an, Shaanxi, during the Tang Dynasty. It stands on the temple's original grounds, as does a replica of the main hall where Huiguo initiated Kukai.

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The Qiyun Pagoda in Luoyang, Henan, has a long history. Its compound is attached to Baima Temple, which is supposedly the first temple in China. This is an 1165 reconstruction; it is said the original was built of wood in 64 (!) over a "mystical" mound containing a Buddha relic sent by King Ashoka.

Qiongzhu Temple in Kunming, Yunnan, is famous for its late-Qing Dynasty set of 500 Arhats. Li Guangxiu, a folk clay artist from Sichuan, took students to Kunming where they created the sculptures over a seven-year (1883–1890). About one meter tall, each has a unique facial expressions and gestures.

The grounds of Xihuang Temple, Beijing, are closed to the public. I tried to enter several times, and was always turned back. Too bad: It features a "Diamond Throne" (complex pagoda) built by the Qianlong emperor to house the clothing and books of the Sixth Panchen Lama, who died in Beijing in 1780.

These three Buddhas at Dafo (Big Buddha) Temple in Guangzhou, Guangdong are just 20 feet (6 metres) high--not bad, but not really so big after all. Only a few decades old, they are located in a much older hall, the only surviving building from the temple's earlier days.

The Mountain Gate at Shuxiang Temple, Chengde, Hebei. The temple is closed to the public, but it's part of a pleasant stroll among the outer temples of Chengde.

Statue of Master Zhiyi (or Zhizhe), founder of the Tiantai Sect for which he was also called Dashi Tiantai. This photo was taken at Guoqing Temple, Zhejiang, which was built at the base of Mount Tiantai as his last wish. His pagoda stands inside a small hall farther up the mountain.

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The bamboo forest behind tiny Shuiyun Temple at the foot of Zhiti Mountain in Ningde, Fujian. My monastic friend Deru brought me here after we visited Huayan Temple farther up the mountain; we continued from here into Fu'an to visit more temples.

A newly-carved Dizang (Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva) and his freshly-primed attendants at Guanyin Feng Temple on Jiuhuashan, Anhui. One can see this when starting down the trail from Gu Baijing Tai (below Tiantai Temple) to Huiju Temple at the bottom of the mountain.

An unusual, newly-built Black Hall at Lingshan Temple, Shantou, Guangdong. It's marked as a "Memorial Hall," and sits behind the small "Tongue Pagoda" of the great Chan Master Chaozhou Dadian, who founded the temple in 791.

China's four Buddhist mountains have their "main attractions," the big temples that everyone wants to visit. But one of the best things about these places is the general atmosphere. Coming down from a "big temple" on Jiuhuashan, Anhui, I saw humble little Jingtu Nunnery next to my hotel.

These ancient trees are the only remaining feature of the former Dajian Temple, Shaoguan, Guangdong. The front hall seems to have been created from an apartment building; the small new main hall is the only one that looks like a temple. This is where Huineng is said to have given the Platform Sutra.

The Sixth Patriarch of Chan (Zen), Huineng, was born at what is now called Liuzu ("Sixth Patriarch") Village, a short walk from Guo'en Temple, where he buried his parents. The village includes two small temple halls; this is one of them. At Xinxing (Zhaoqing), Guangdong.

The ornate main gate at Lushan Temple in Changsha, Hunan. The temple is located a short climb up from the bottom of Yuelu Mountain; I had walked up from the university at the mountain's base, past pavilions and steles, until at last I reached the temple's terrace, where I was greeted by this sight.

A steep climb up a cliff behind a Tibetan-style temple brought me to Wutai Shan's very small Guanyin Cave. The cave is actually behind a very small hall; the friendly monk was performing an ablution ceremony, pouring frigid mountain water on the head of an American-born Chinese girl when I arrived.

Wutai Shan, Shanxi, is dedicated to Manjushri Bodhisattva (Wenshu Pusa). This figure at Shuxiang ("Manjushri Image") Temple is the tallest and most magnificent figure of the Bodhisattva on the mountain. He is shown riding a suan ni, a lion-like son of a dragon, instead of the more common lion.

The Mountain Gate of Hongfa Temple, Shenzhen, Guangdong. This was the first temple I visited in Mainland China (in 2003), and despite being new and shiny (just finished in 1992), all the usual buildings and statues were there. I learned a lot from this model temple, and often showed friends around.