Qihuai Temple

Qihuai Temple

Qihuai Temple is a national key cultural relic protection unit.

Also known as Kuhui Temple, Qihuai Temple is a key cultural relic protection unit in Shanxi Province. According to the inscription on the thousand-jin iron bell found at the Qihuai Temple ruins, the temple was a subordinate monastery of the Buddhist temples on Mount Wutai and maintained close connections with the Zen Buddhist sites there. It was established in the 21st year of the Kaiyuan era by the eminent monk Huigan from the north, and ten years after its founding — between the first and the 11th years of the Tianbao era — a large number of granite Buddha statues were carved and 360 stupas were constructed. These stupas were then buried underground in sequence across an area spanning dozens of square miles around Qihuai Temple, making it an exceptionally grand project. Scattered across the hillsides, foothills, terraces, and valleys near the temple are mound-like stone statue tombs. These tombs were built with stones stacked together, topped with long flat stones, and then covered with sand and soil. Each tomb has a small entrance through which the inner statues can be seen from the outside. The size of these tombs varies, typically standing three to four meters tall with a circumference of 20 to 30 meters, and from the outside they closely resemble graves. Each tomb houses around ten Buddha, Bodhisattva, Vajra, or donor figure statues. The largest excavated statue stands 1.2 meters tall, its facial features now blurred but its clothing details still clearly visible. The stone statue tombs vividly reflect the refined artistry of Buddhist sculpture during the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty. The temple was burned down by Japanese forces in 1937, though the foundations of halls, platforms, stairways, and columns remain well-preserved. The 43 identified stone statue tombs currently discovered are of great significance for the study of Tang Dynasty stone carving art, as well as the history of Buddhism, aesthetics, and sculpture.