Chong Sheng Temple

Dali is a city with a lot of ancient buildings. You may know something about Dali, If you have watched the ancient Chinese drama. The ancient Chinese royal went to the Dali temple for blessing very often, so do the ancient Chinese people.

So, Panda will bring you all to see the holiness of Chong Shengsi (崇圣寺). Chong Shengsi is a royal temple which built around A.D. 824 to 859, therefor the building is full of ancient Chinese color ( you could see the picture below ). And Chong Shengsi is a Buddhist structure, this building is one of the most ancient buildings in China.



Chong Shengsi has a lot history, the name of this building means to adore the Buddhism gods. One of the word “ Sheng (圣)” of the building’s name is symbolizes the goddess Guanyin (观音). After this building finished, this area became the Buddhist activity center of the Dali ancient country. After that the people of the Dali country all became Buddhist, even more remarkably is there are at least 6 kings became a monk after abdicated their throne. And there was a rule of the Dali country which is you can not be any official if you were not a Buddhist. Unfortunately, this temple has destroyed in the Xianfeng period in Qing Dynasty, but there were three towers still stand there after four hundred years. And the Chinese government has maintained temple at 1978, Chong Shengsi has rebuilts in recent years also.



The Length of the rebuild temple is 1130 meters, the Width is 352 meters. Even this temple is just one-six of the old one, but you still could feel impressively. Chong Shengsi is one of the highest towers in China also, The main pagoda, known as Qianxun Pagoda, is 69.13 meters high and hollow inside.

The south and north tower are Leaning to Qianxun Pagoda at the same time. There were several earthquakes in the past four hundred years, but these three towers still there as usual. I heard people say, the Dali city has been destroyed by earthquake in The Ming dynasty, and the Qianxun Pagoda has shattered in two pieces by the earthquake also. After a few days the Qianxun Pagodas are gone together intact, it was as good as new, it is unbelievable.



Chong Shengsi has a Black God statue, the native ancient Dali people named him “ Black God”. And the name has a short history also. The ancient myth says the Black God was one of the butlers of The Jade Emperor, and The Jade Emperor envy that there was a such beautiful view on the Dali city, then he sent the Black God to destroy it. But the Black God found that the people in Dali are so kind, he cannot do such thing to the people on the earth. Therefore he has a suicide. Then the Dali people make a statue for him.
What a beautiful myth, isn’t it? If you are a devout Buddhist, or you like ancient Chinese so much, then you barely don’t miss this place. You are going to just love it .