Qianfosi monastery, (in) Jinan, Shandong, CN

Raw data

"Thousand Buddha Mountain […] a hill located southeast of the city of Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, China. It is renowned for its numerous Buddha images which have been carved out of the hill's rock faces or free-standing structures erect since the times of the Sui Dynasty (581-618) and its Xingguochan Temple. […]
Buddhism became popular in the Jinan area during the reign of Emperor Wen, the founder of the Sui Dynasty. With Buddhism, monks came to area and chiseled Buddha statues out of the flanks of the hill, which was originally called Miji Hill or Li Hill. A temple, called the Thousand Buddha Temple (Qianfosi) was founded at the foot of the hill. Eventually, the hill was renamed after the temple into "Thousand Buddha Mountain". One of the old names, Li Hill (Li Shan), survives in the name of Lishan Road, the major avenue which runs through Jinan towards the Thousand Buddha Mountain in north-south direction.

Cave south of the Xingguochan Temple
The Thousand-Buddha Cliff is located on the northern flank of the hill behind the Xingguochan Temple (s. below). The foot of the cliff is pierced by five caves, which are named (from west to east): Longquan (Dragon Spring) Cave, Jile (Extremely Happy) Cave, Qianlou (probably a person's name) Cave, and Luzhu (probably a person's name) Cave. The caves' height ranges from 3 meters down to only 20 centimeters. About 130 Buddha statues which were carved into Thousand-Buddha Cliff during the Sui period remain today. The Jile Cave houses 16 Buddha statues, the tallest of which is 3 m high.

Buddha statues in a cave south of the Xingguochan Temple
Along with the Buddha statues, temples and other buildings were erected on the hill. The most renown of these structures is the Xingguochan Temple (Chinese: 兴国禅寺; pinyin: Xing Guo Chan Si, literally: "Development of the Country Buddhist Temple") which was originally build during the reign of Emperor Taizhong of Tang as an expansion of the Sui-Dynasty Qianfo Temple. Further enlargements were undertaken during the Song Dynasty, but the temple was destroyed by war afterwards. Rebuilding was undertaken in 1468, during the Ming Dynasty. The Guanying Hall, the Foye Hall, and the Thousand-Hands Buddha statue were added during the Qing Dynasty.

East gate of Xingguochan Temple
The temple is located about half-way up the hill and can be reached via 300 stone steps. A large inscription (total area about 15 square meters) cut into the cliff face to the southwest of the identifies it as the "Number One Temple" (Di Yi Mi Hua). "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_Buddha_Mountain

Input by: tmciolek, Jun 16, 2011

Final data (and their sources)

Lat/Long coordinates' accuracy:
The monastery in question is assumed to be situated actually no farther than 200 m from the point defined by the coordinates below.

Location of Qianfosi monastery, CN.

General location of the Qianfosi monastery, CN.
Lat 36.645278 Long:117.026944
Mapping & images: Falling Rain Genomics (http://www.fallingrain.com), 2011.


Google Map link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=36.645278+117.026944+(Approx.%20loc.%20of%20the%20Qianfosi%20monastery,%20CN)&ll=36.645278,117.026944&spn=05.0,05.0&t=k&hl=en

Final data - explanatory notes

1. Monastery's name

2. Monastery's modern country & province

  • China: Shandong Sheng

3. Monastery's alternative/historical names

4. Monastery's lat/long coordinates

  • Approx. Lat 36.645278 Long:117.026944 - based on visual indetnification of the site in maps and satellite imagery, maps.google.com - tmciolek, 16 Jun 2011.

5. Other known nearby Buddhist monasteries

  • [missing data]

6. Modern name of the known nearest city, town, or village

7. The settlement's alternative/historical names

8. The settlement's coordinates

9. Monastery's major Buddhist tradition

  • Mahayana

10. Monastery's Buddhist sub-tradition

  • [missing data]

11. Date-early

12. Date-intermediate

13. Date-late

14. Details of contacts with other monasteries

  • [missing data]

15. Type of evidence regarding the monastery

  • architectural

16. Additional notes

17. Corrections & addenda to this page were kindly provided by

  • [missing data]

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