Hangzhou Temples, Pagodas, Mosque and Churches

The Buddhist kingdom of the south-east

Buddhism has shaped Hangzhou more than any other faith, and since early times the city has been called the Buddhist kingdom of the south-east (东南佛国). It arrived under the Eastern Jin in the 4th century, flourished under the Wuyue kings of the 10th century and reached its height under the Southern Song, when the capital and its hills held some 480 temples.

When the Song ranked the great monasteries of China as the Five Mountains and Ten Temples, Hangzhou's houses stood near the top for all three schools — Chan, Teaching and Discipline: Jingshan Temple, Lingyin and Jingci by West Lake, and the three Tianzhu temples in the Wulin hills near Lingyin. Lingyin and Jingci are both on the national list of key Buddhist temples today.

Lingyin Temple

Lingyin, the "Temple of the Soul's Retreat", stands in the wooded valley between Feilai Peak and the North Peak, west of the lake. By tradition it was founded in the 320s under the Eastern Jin by a monk from India, which would make it one of the oldest monasteries in China. At its height under the Wuyue kingdom it had 18 pavilions, 72 halls, more than 1,300 rooms and over 3,000 monks, and many of the Buddhist rock carvings of the Feilai Peak grottoes opposite date from that time.

The temple has been rebuilt at least sixteen times, and most of its present halls are restorations of the late Qing or later. In August 1966 it was closed on orders from the central government to protect it from the Red Guards. It is one of the 2007 West Lake scenes, "Zen Retreat at Lingyin" — see the new ten scenes.

Jingci Temple

Jingci stands below Nanping Hill on the south shore of West Lake, opposite Leifeng Pagoda. A Wuyue king founded it in 954 as the Huiri Yongming monastery for a Chan master; it was renamed in the Northern Song and given its present name in the Southern Song, when it was counted among the Five Mountains of Chan. Its evening bell is one of the Ten Scenes of West Lake; the present bell, made with help from a Zen temple in Japan, was dedicated in 1986.

Three Wuyue pagodas

Three of Hangzhou's landmarks are Buddhist pagodas built by the Wuyue kingdom in its last decades:

• Baochu Pagoda (963), slender and plain, on Baoshi Hill above the north shore — a scene of the 1985 list.
• Six Harmonies Pagoda (970), on Yuelun Hill above the Qiantang River, built to hold relics and, by tradition, to calm the river's tidal bore. Lamps on it once guided boats at night. Wrecked in 1121 and rebuilt in 1153–1163, it keeps a Song brick body inside thirteen tiers of timber eaves rebuilt in 1900; it is 59.89 m tall and was among the first national heritage sites named in 1961.
• Leifeng Pagoda (c. 975), on the south shore, built to hold a relic of the Buddha. It collapsed in 1924 and was rebuilt over its foundations in 2002; it is one of the Ten Scenes of West Lake.

The Phoenix Mosque

Islam reached Hangzhou with Arab merchants trading along the sea routes of the south-east. The Phoenix Mosque on Zhongshan Middle Road — the old Imperial Street — is counted among the four great ancient mosques of China. It was founded in the Tang or Song dynasty and burnt down at the end of the Song; its prayer hall was rebuilt in 1281 with money from a Persian settler, in a mainly Chinese style with Islamic features.

Its minaret was taken down in 1928 when the street was widened, and the mosque was thoroughly restored in 1953; it became a national heritage site in 2001. As the community grew, and to spare the old building, a second mosque was built in the city's eastern new district and opened in May 2017.

Churches

Catholic missionaries reached Hangzhou in the late Ming: the first Mass in the city was said in a convert's house on 8 May 1611, and the first church was built in 1627. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at 415 Zhongshan North Road was built in 1659–1661 by an Italian Jesuit. After Christianity was banned in 1723 it was taken over, and in 1730 it became a temple to the sea goddess Tianhou; it was returned in 1864, became a cathedral in 1910, was closed in 1966 and is now a provincial heritage site (2011) and the only open Catholic church in the city centre.

Protestant missions left churches such as Gulou, Tianshui and Sichengtang. Sichengtang Church, built in 1924–1927 on a cross-shaped plan with Chinese eaves, was declared a historic building in the first batch of 2004.

Temples on the historic buildings list

Hangzhou's list of declared historic buildings also protects smaller and lesser-known religious sites, many of them former temples now used for other purposes: among them The Former Site of Manao Temple and The Former Site of Zhaoxian Temple near the north shore, and The Complex of Mituo Temple, with the largest cliff inscription in the city. The temples and churches page lists them all.