Fengguo Temple

Fengguo Temple is located in Yixian County, Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, China. It was first built in the ninth year of Kaiping in the Liao Dynasty (1020), originally named Xianxi Temple, and later renamed Fengguo Temple. Fengguo Temple covers an area of about 60,000 square meters. The Liao, Jin, and Yuan periods were the heyday of Fengguo Temple. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, only the Daxiong Hall remained. During the Qing Dynasty, the Hexagonal Bell Tower, Four-cornered Stele Pavilion, Wuliang Hall, Paifang, Small Mountain Gate, and Xigong Zen Temple were rebuilt. Fengguo Temple is one of the three existing Liao Dynasty temples in China. Its iconic ancient building, the Daxiong Hall, is the largest Buddha Hall left from ancient times, and it houses the oldest and largest group of colored clay Buddha statues in the world. The main building of Fengguo Temple, the Daxiong Hall, and the overall layout of the temple, inherit the legacy of the Tang Dynasty and initiate the layout of temples in the Liao and Jin Dynasties. It is the most typical example of Liao and Jin temples. Among them, the Daxiong Hall is the highest achievement of Liao Dynasty Buddhist architecture, representing the highest level of Chinese architecture in the 11th century. In 1961, it was announced by the State Council of the People's Republic of China as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In 2009, it was rated as a AAAA-level tourist attraction by the China National Tourism Administration.