Ruins of the Sanfozu Buddhist Temple

　　The Sanfozu Buddhist Temple ruins in Ximeng County – Located on the mountaintop of Fodian (Buddhist Hall Mountain) to the southwest of the reservoir park in Mengkan Town, Ximeng Va Autonomous County, Pu'er, Yunnan, there is a flat area in the mountains. At the center of this plain stand three square, protruding stone pagodas built with stacked rocks, with remnants of surrounding walls nearby.

　　Climbing onto the stone pagodas, you can enjoy a breathtaking panoramic view of the undulating Va mountain ranges that look like green islands floating in a sea of clouds. This site was once a major center of Mahayana Buddhism worship for the Lahu and Va peoples over a century before the founding of the People’s Republic of China – the "Mengkan Fodian Mountain 'Sanfozu' Buddhist Temple Ruins," a provincial-level cultural relic protected site in Pu'er, Yunnan. According to historical records, the Sanfozu Buddhist Temple was first built between the end of the Tongzhi era and the beginning of the Guangxu era in the Qing Dynasty (1874–1875), and it has a history of more than 120 years. Originally, there were four civil-structured temple buildings, with the main "Sanfozu" hall located at the center of the main structure.

　　Inside the hall were Buddha niches, bronze Buddha statues, and monks chanting scriptures. The entire temple complex covered an area of 2,500 square meters. Behind the main hall stood a square, protruding stone pagoda, five meters tall, with a base area of 16 square meters. It was constructed in three layers using river stones in a protruding shape. In front of the hall were four flower stands, and beyond them lay a large courtyard of over 400 square meters, used for Buddhist ceremonies and entertainment such as singing and dancing by devotees. At the front of the courtyard was the main gate, and outside the gate stood an altar for worshipping celestial gods. The temple was enclosed by stone walls approximately one meter high and thick. Today, the site still preserves the stone pagoda and remnants of some of the surrounding walls. The block-stone pagoda served as a token of the blood oath alliance between Li Tongming, the religious leader of the Lahu people at the time, and the Va tribal chief Wolang.

　　During the Qing Dynasty, Li Tongming, who once served as the Tusi (local chieftain) of Mengsuo in Ximeng, adopted a system of combined political and religious rule over the Ximeng Mountains, an area inhabited by both Va and Lahu peoples. To foster cooperative relations with the Va tribal chiefs, he conducted blood oath alliances with leaders of various Va tribes on Fodian Mountain. Under these pacts, each household of the allied Va believers contributed a stone to the Mengkan Buddhist Temple, and together with the Lahu devotees, they built the stone pagoda.

　　Address: Ximeng County, Pu'er City, Yunnan Province, China