Yunju Temple is located in Fangshan District

Fangshan District

Fangshan District is situated in the southwest of Beijing, 38 km away from the downtown Beijing. It has an area of 2,019 square kilometers and a population of 814,367...

, 70 kilometers southwest of Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

.

History

The temple was first built in the early 7th century. In 616, the first Buddhist stone scripture tablet was made at the temple by a monk named Jingwan. Because there were debates going between Buddhists and Daoists, and Jingwan feared reprisals from Daoists, he decided to carve his scriptures on stone instead of writing them on paper. The work on the stone tablets continued on for more than a thousand years before ending in 1655. The tablets were based on an edition of the Canon of Buddhist Writings put together during the Tang Dynasty as well as a Liao work known as the Qidangcan. In total, 1122 Buddhist scriptures in 3572 volumes were produced at the temple. In the 1930s, a significant portion of the temple was destroyed.

Layout

There were originally six halls in the temple, arranged from east to west. On both sides of the halls, there was accommodation for guests and dormitories for monks.

The temple contains a total of twelve pagoda

Pagoda

A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...

s from the Liao

Liao Dynasty

The Liao Dynasty , also known as the Khitan Empire was an empire in East Asia that ruled over the regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and parts of northern China proper between 9071125...

 and Tang

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

 dynasties and three tomb pagodas from the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

.