Langzhong Vinegar Museum

Langzhong Vinegar Museum

Located in the western suburbs of Langzhong (now at No. 2 Jingsheng'an Street), it was originally built in the third year of the Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty (1630). A Guanyin Hall was constructed with yellow walls and green tiles, nestled within a bamboo grove. During the flourishing Kangxi and Qianlong eras of the Qing Dynasty, it underwent several expansions. Inside the nunnery stands an hexagonal iron stupa with a thousand Buddha statues, eleven stories tall and weighing eleven tons. Atop the stupa is a copper-cast statue of the Medicine Buddha; the stupa also bears inscriptions of the Universal Gate Chapter, the Heart Sutra, and the Great Compassion Mantra; inside the stupa are 1,280 Buddha statues of various sizes. In 2003, a three-story building with two floors above ground and one below was newly erected in front of the Guanyin Hall. The first floor serves as a chanting hall, the second as a meditation room, and the third as a Mahavira Hall, a Heavenly King Hall, and a Thousand-Armed Guanyin Hall. The halls are renowned for their numerous and exquisitely crafted copper statues, considered a marvel. Currently, the nunnery is home to four resident bhikkhunis, with lay devotees numbering over a thousand.