Atlas of China
Mengshan Giant Buddha 蒙山大佛Méngshān Dàfó
4A scenic area · National heritage site · Taiyuan, Shanxi
- Time needed
- Half a day
- Days to budget
- Half a day
- City
- Taiyuan
- Region
- Shanxi
- Type
- Heritage
- Listed as
- 4A scenic area, National heritage site
About Mengshan Giant Buddha
A giant seated Buddha carved into a cliff on Mount Meng from 551 under the Northern Qi, which Taiyuan's heritage pages describe as the largest cliff Buddha of the Northern Dynasties period. The head was lost and the body was found buried in rubble in 1980; a new head 12 m high was added in the 2000s, and the whole figure now stands about 38 m high. The scenic area also has the ruins of Kaihua Temple, two small Song-dynasty brick pagodas known as the Lianli Pagodas and an iron Buddha of the late Sui or early Tang.
How to get to Mengshan Giant Buddha
On Mount Meng, about 8 km north of Jinci and about 13 km south-west of central Taiyuan.
Nearby
- Jinci Temple 晋祠 under 10 km
Song-dynasty halls, painted clay maidservants and a cross-shaped bridge at the Jin springs - Shanxi Museum 山西博物院 10 km
Bronzes of the ancient state of Jin, Buddhist statues and tomb treasures on the Fen River - Qiao Family Compound 乔家大院 40 km
Walled courtyards of a Qing merchant-banking family, the set for Raise the Red Lantern
Also within 20 km: Longquan Temple, Taishan 太山龙泉寺 (under 10 km), Taiyuan Botanical Garden 太原植物园 (under 10 km), Longshan Grottoes and Tongzi Temple Site 龙山石窟·童子寺遗址 (under 10 km), Ashoka Pagoda, Jinyuan 晋源阿育王塔 (under 10 km), Jinyang Ancient City Site 晋阳古城遗址 (under 10 km), Jinyuan Confucian Temple 晋源文庙 (under 10 km).
On the map
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