Buddhist Temple Gardens

With the rapid spread of the Buddhist faith in China during the Eastern Jin Dynasty（317-420）and the Southern and Northern Dynasties（420-589）, many large-size temples were built in Hangzhou too, such as the well-known Lingyin （Soul's Retreat）Temple, Jingci（Pure Benevolence ）Temple and such other places of worship as Fashan Temple, Fajing Temple, etc. where the smoke of incense burning filled and swirled about the grounds all the year round. Thus the saying went that “Hills surround the West Lake and temples surround the hills”and building temples and monastery gardens here thus became the order of the day.

Lingyin Temple

The most representative of the temple and monastery gardens in Hangzhou should be Lingyin Temple whose history dates back to over 1,600 years ago. As a scenic spot, the temple grounds today include not just the temple proper but also the aforementioned Peak That Flew Here （Feilai Feng）. The temple is located where it lies snugly sheltered under several peaks each outstandingly picturesque in its own way while what is known as the Cool Spring is half hidden in the midst of the craggy rocks and towering ancient trees nearby. With the steep and lofty Feilai Peak standing like a towering natural barrier and with the many Buddhist statues enshrined in the niches on the cliffside, the kind of artistic conceptualization inspiring the design and layout of the temple garden gradually becomes manifest, that is,“A timeless temple lying in seclusion deep in the hills”. Hence the name of the temple：“Soul's Retreat”.

The main hall is the centerpiece architecture of the temple. Crowned with a three-tier roof structure, the building is 33.6m high. Stoutly built with multiple pillars and beams, the hall has at its very center a sculpture of Sakyamuni sitting on a lotus seat that looks divinely benevolent and kind. Carved out of camphor wood in 24 pieces, the sculpture is as tall as 19.6m. The back wall of the main hall is covered all over with a massive-size carved work of art 20m in height that depicts the Buddhist story of how Buddha's barge of mercy ferries all the miserable souls in the world to the land of bliss. It is a rare ancient treasure of art in a historical building in China.

In designing and siting what may be called the semi-decorative garden buildings on the grounds at Lingyin Temple, ingenious use is made of the topographical features of the locality, placing the pavilions, terraces and other structures of landscape-architecture interest such as the pavilions named Lengquan（Cool Spring）, Helai （Thunder in the Ravine）, Chuncong （Gurgling in Spring）, Cuiwei（Lushly Green）, etc. where they can best set off the main architectural structures of the temple and where they can act as good natural transtion points in a scenic environment of woods and hills. In building them, full advantage is taken of adjacent terrain. For instance, Cuiwei Pavilion is built halfway up Feilai Peak and the Cool Spring Pavilion which has derived its name from the mountain spring there commands a beautiful view of the nearby stream. The magnificent main temple structures and those ancillary semi-decorative structures whose design is likely to arouse in the beholder deeply-felt poetic sentiments stand in pleasing contrast and with the display of an ingenious array of natural rocks and caves, the whole place presents an unusually variegated, level-on-level appearance with a mighty innate rhythm. And when a garden is so designed and built as to reflect a perfect fusion of architectural art with Buddhist culture, visitors are very likely to feel as though they had stepped into the imaginary other world.