LongHua Temple 上海龙华寺

Today we covered LungHua city. There are quite a number of attraction within the nearby vicinity. Some require entrance fee and some do not. The first attraction that we visited was the LongHua Temple 龙华寺.

The main entrance of the LongHua temple

Entrance fee is RMB10 per adult. Children is free. The Longhua Temple is a Buddhist Temple dedicated to the Maitreya Buddha in Shanghai Municipality, China.

Entrance ticket

Although most of the present-day buildings date from later reconstructions, the temple preserves the architectural design of a Song Dynasty monastery of the Buddhist Chan sect. It is the largest, most authentic and complete ancient temple complex in the city of Shanghai.

The back side of the main entrance to the temple

Right after the entrance, there is a wide area of empty space sort of the courtyard of this temple. Two large statues of the lion standing guard at each side of the yellow temple building could be seen. There is a small arc entrance that led to the main compound within the inner areas that have multiple temples.

Two large lions guarding at each sides

A stone lantern

This small arched doorway leads to main temple ground

Some stone carving with ancient characters

Longhua temple is full of these round shape crest of variety of stone carvings which is very beautiful seen close-up. I have captured quite a few of them as shown below:

The variety of buildings within the temple is quite a lot and different shapes of urn, lantern on the ground.

Temple shaped like a 3 levels pagoda building

There is a room that displayed some ancient stuffs in the temple.

More temple ground photos

Variety of rooms for monks, etc

The LongHua Pagoda can be seen in the background

More temple ground - buildings

Urn for burning incense

Lotus shape lantern - I think?

There were Buddha, Goddess of Mercy and Thousand Hands God statues inside the temples. These are housed separately in different temple halls. There were many people offering prayers and incense within the temple.

Sacred drum and head of Goddess of Mercy

Goddess of Mercy

Many hands God. There were hands on every sides.

Awesome sight

First built in 242 AD, which is during the period of the Three Kingdoms, Longhua Temple is the oldest temple in Shanghai for its long history of over 1700 years. Because of the several destructions by the wars, most of the buildings in Longhua Temple were reconstructed during the reign of the Emperor Tongzhi and Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty.

Besides its long history, Longhua Temple is the largest temple in Shanghai. It occupies an area of over 20,000 square meters (five acres) and the architectural proportion is about 5,000 square meters (one point two acres).

Along the 194 meters long (637 feet) axis are the Maitreya Hall (Miledian), Devajara Hall (Tianwangdian), Mahavira Hall (Daxiongbaodian), Three Sages Hall (Sanshengdian), Abbot's Hall (Fangzhangshi) and the Sutras Keeping Hall (Cangjinglou) which keeps the three treasures of the
temple including the Dazang sutras, the gold seals and the Buddhist statues.

Accessory halls on the two sides are the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower, both of them are furnished with the same hexagonal windows and the curved eaves. The whole courtyard was built strictly in the style of traditional Buddhist symmetry and it's in accordance with the Chinese concept of beauty.

Numerous family photos on the temple grounds

Taken photo with the LongHua Temple sign

Finally we came a circle back to the entrance that we came in before. We once again took family photo in front of the gates. Behind the gate, one could see vividly Longhua pagoda in the background.

Ending shot of the day before exiting