Shima Temple

Shima Temple

Shima Temple is a national AAA-level tourist attraction and a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.

Located in Shima Village, 15 kilometers southwest of Xiyang County. Originally a relatively small cliffside carving complex primarily featuring stone sculptures, later generations built structures around the carvings, eventually forming a Buddhist temple layout. During the Song Dynasty, it was named Shousheng Temple, but because of the pair of stone horses in front of the temple, it became commonly known as Shima Temple.

Shima Temple currently preserves around a thousand stone carvings. These stone sculptures range in size from 5 meters to just 5 centimeters, with 66 of them standing over 1 meter tall. Among them, carvings from the Northern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties account for about 70%, while the rest are works from the Sui and Tang periods.

Shima Temple

Time Period: Northern Wei to Tang Dynasty

Address: Shima Village, 12 kilometers southwest of Xiyang County

It is a Buddhist temple that combines stone carvings with traditional temple architecture. Originally called Shifo Temple, it was later renamed Shima Temple after a pair of carved stone horses were placed in front of the temple.

According to inscriptions and steles, these stone carvings were created in the third year of the Yongxi era of the Northern Wei Dynasty (534 AD), representing early examples of Buddhist cave carvings transmitted northward. Carving continued during the Sui and Tang periods. By the Song Dynasty, halls were built around the statues, and subsequent dynasties carried out various renovations. Carvings from the Wei and Qi periods make up about seventy percent, with the remainder dating to the Sui and Tang eras. The temple currently houses over 1,300 stone carvings of varying sizes, the largest being five meters tall and the smallest just five centimeters, all carved around an independent massive rock that is 17 meters high, 16 meters long from east to west, and 15 meters wide from north to south. This forms a cliffside cave temple. The Wei and Qi carvings mainly depict Buddhas, bodhisattvas, guardian warriors, attendants, and donors. The Sui and Tang carvings primarily feature Amitabha, Guanyin, and the Sixteen Arhats. The wooden structures in front of the caves include the Great Buddha Hall (built in the Yuan Dynasty), Guanyin Pavilion (built in the Ming Dynasty), Zisun Hall, the Southeast Cave Corridor, Bell and Drum Towers, Sangharama Hall, and Mountain Pavilion. These structures feature single-eave hip-and-gable roofs, double-eave hip-and-gable roofs, three-sided corridors, or hexagonal pointed roofs, all designed according to the terrain and the needs of the carvings. A stone arch bridge spans a deep ravine in front of the temple, connecting two mountains, complemented by a stone memorial archway on the opposite bank, providing great convenience for visitors.

Location

Shima Village, Xiyang County, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province

Shima Village: Located 15 kilometers southwest of Xiyang County, Shima Village has a total of 134 households, a population of 291, 20 Party members, a regional area of 5,838 mu, and a total cultivated land area of 387 mu. In 2014, the per capita income was 7,290 yuan. The village’s economy is primarily agricultural, with corn as the main grain crop.

Shima Village is home to the thousand-year-old Shima Temple. In 2010, it actively applied to be listed among the second batch of Shanxi Province’s Famous Tourism Villages. In recent years, with support from the village committee, a project to build a 1,000-mu ecological forest has been implemented, greatly improving the local ecological environment. 201… For more detailed information about Shima Village ++

Further Reading:

· Second Batch of Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units