Hanging Temple - Hanging Monastery

Hanging Temple - Hanging Monastery

The Hanging Temple or Hanging Monastery (simplified Chinese: 悬空寺; traditional Chinese: 懸空寺; pinyin: Xuánkōng Sì) is a temple built into a cliff (75 m or 246 ft above the ground) near Mount Heng in Hunyuan County, Shanxi province, China. The closest city is Datong, 64.23 kilometres to the northwest. Along with the Yungang Grottoes, the Hanging Temple is one of the main tourist attractions and historical sites in the Datong area. Built more than 1,500 years ago, this temple is notable not only for its location on a sheer precipice but also because it includes Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian elements. The structure is kept in place with oak crossbeams fitted into holes chiselled into the cliffs. The main supportive structure was hidden inside the bedrock. According to the history of Shangshen Mountain, construction of the original temple was conducted by only one man, a monk named Liao Ran (了然). Over more than 1,600 years, many repairs and extensions have led to its present-day scale. This temple is over 50 meters tall.