Meizhou Lingguang Temple

Meizhou Lingguang Temple

Meizhou Lingguang Temple is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction and a cultural heritage site protected by Guangdong Province.

Lingguang Temple, located at the foot of Yinna Mountain in YanYang Town, is 46 kilometers from Meizhou City. It is one of the four famous temples in Guangdong Province. Its founder was the Tang Dynasty eminent monk Pan Liaochuan, who passed away in the second year of the Xiantong era (861 AD). The temple was initially built by local villagers and was originally named "Shengshou Temple." It has a history of over 1,600 years. In the 18th year of the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty (1385 AD), Mei Ding, an imperial censor from eastern Guangdong, donated funds to expand the temple. It was then renamed Lingguang Temple. The three characters “Lingguang Temple” engraved on the current stone plaque above the main gate were written by Mei Ding.

Lingguang Temple is built against the mountain, covering an area of over 10,000 square meters. It has been widely renowned since ancient times, attracting a large number of visitors. Why? Because Lingguang Temple is famous for its “Three Wonders.”

The first wonder is: in the front lawn of the temple, there are two cypress trees — one alive and one dead. The living one stands over 30 meters tall, lush and proud; the dead one is of similar height, with thick trunk and sturdy branches, dead but neither decaying nor rotting. These are known as the “Living and Dead Cypresses,” hailed as the “Treasure Trees of Guangdong.” These cypress trees were planted personally by Pan Liaochuan before the construction of “Shengshou Temple,” and their age exceeds one thousand

six hundred years. The dead tree has been dead for nearly four hundred years, yet it remains almost as tall as the living one. A few years ago, the Pearl River Film Studio produced a movie titled “Living and Dead Trees,” which used these two trees as its backdrop.

The second wonder is that the temple’s most magnificent main hall, the Mahavira Hall, is often filled with thick incense smoke, yet under any circumstance, the smoke never chokes the visitors. Why? Legend says it’s due to the structure of the caisson ceiling in the hall. This caisson ceiling is a spiral structure made of more than 1,000 exquisitely crafted rectangular wooden blocks, commonly called the “pineapple dome.” Its design is ingenious and unique, representing a masterpiece of temple architectural art. There are only two such pineapple domes in China, the other being the square caisson ceiling in Beijing’s Temple of Heaven. The brilliance of this pineapple dome lies in its ability to draw the incense smoke from inside the hall up to the roof and quickly expel it, preventing worshippers from being choked by the smoke.

The third wonder is that although the hill behind the Mahavira Hall is covered with lush green trees, not a single leaf can be found on the rooftop of the hall. What could be the reason? To this day, it remains a mystery.

YanYang Town: Located in northeastern Meizhou, YanYang Town sits beneath the Wuzhi Peak of the Lotus Mountain Range in Meixian District and is under the jurisdiction of Meizhou’s Meixian County. It is the hometown of Marshal [Name Redacted]. The town governs 27 villages, 2 neighborhood committees, 279 villager groups, and has a population of 31,852. YanYang Town, the hometown of Marshal [Name Redacted], is situated at 116°20′ east longitude and 24°50′ north latitude, in the northeastern part of Meixian County. It borders Yingya of Dabu to the east, Sanxiang of Meixian to the south, Bingcun to the west, and Baidu and Songnan Town to the north. It lies 33 kilometers southwest of downtown Meizhou, 9 kilometers from Bingcun Town, and 16 kilometers from Songkou Town. In ancient times, YanYang was mostly a lowland lakeside area...  Detailed Information about YanYang Town++

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Guangdong Provincial Cultural Heritage Sites