Zhaojue Temple 昭觉寺

About Zhaojue Temple

The Mahavira Hall contains three principal Buddha images, while arhat figures stand along its sides. An octagonal pavilion and the succession of smaller devotional halls add variation to the route. Read the complex as a renewed active religious site, looking at the arrangement of spaces and images rather than assuming every building survives unchanged from its early history.

The temple originated as the home of Dong Chang (董常), a Han-dynasty military officer of Meizhou, and was converted into a Buddhist temple during the Zhenguan era of the Tang dynasty to revive Buddhism, then known as Jianyuan Temple (建元寺). In 877, in the Qianfu era of Emperor Xizong of Tang, Chan master Xiumeng Liaojue (休梦了觉) became abbot and renamed it Zhaojue (昭觉). The painter Zhang Daqian lived at the temple four years studying painting, leaving manuscripts that remain.

In March 1917, Zhu De (朱德) and Zhou Guanhe (周官和) took refuge at Zhaojue Temple. During the Cultural Revolution the temple was severely damaged, its buildings, statues, pagodas and ritual objects destroyed and its land requisitioned; it was rebuilt afterward under the management of the Chinese Buddhist community. The rebuilt Mahavira Hall was consecrated on 21 May 1991; its three principal images are Vairocana, Rocana and Sakyamuni Buddha.

Zhaojue Temple was designated one of the Han-area National Key Buddhist Temples (汉族地区佛教全国重点寺院) by the State Council in 1983, and was listed as a Chengdu municipal cultural-relic protection unit (成都市文物保护单位) in its ninth batch on 5 March 2026. Its abbot Ciqing (慈青) served as head of the Chengdu Buddhist Association and as a Sichuan provincial congress delegate.

What to look for

• The Mahavira Hall contains the Three-Body Buddha images and side groups of arhats.
• The octagonal pavilion contrasts with the larger rectangular temple halls.

Location & getting there

Getting to Zhaojue Temple

Approach the temple gate from Qinglong Road in Chenghua district. Use the signed pedestrian entrance to Zhaojue Temple; the similarly named coach station is a separate facility.