Shuilu Temple 水陆庵

About Shuilu Temple

Its main hall contains thousands of figures arranged across walls and partitions: large Buddhas are surrounded by miniature buildings, landscapes and narrative scenes. The contrast of scale is the point of a slow visit. Look first at the principal images, then trace how the smaller figures turn the wall surfaces into densely populated Buddhist stories.

The site originated as the Shuilu Hall (水陆殿) within Beipu Tuo Lanzhu Nunnery (北普陀蓝渚庵), part of Wuzhen Temple (悟真寺), which was first built in the Northern Dynasties; after Wuzhen Temple was later destroyed, only the Shuilu Hall survived. In the Ming dynasty, Zhu Huaijuan (朱怀卷), Prince of Qin, dedicated the hall as a family shrine and Buddhist chapel and greatly rebuilt and expanded it into Shuilu Temple.

The temple covers a total area of more than two thousand square metres and sits facing east. Its main buildings include a mountain gate (山门), a front hall (前殿), a middle hall (中殿) and a main hall (大殿). The main hall holds more than 3,700 statues, the largest surviving group of painted clay sculpture in China. In 1996 it was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位), in the fourth batch of such designations.

What to look for

• The principal Buddha group on the central partition, with elaborate sculpted halos.
• The north and south wall compositions, combining Buddhist narratives with miniature architecture and landscapes.

Location & getting there

Getting to Shuilu Temple

Go to Shatan Village, Puhua Town, Lantian County, east of the county town.

• Arrange the final road approach specifically to Shuilu’an; the small temple is distinct from the wider Wangshun Mountain area.