Vairo Cana Temple

(Local Name: Pilu Si) The Vairo Cana Temple, situated 10km/6mi to the northwest of the city, dates from the Tang period (618-907). Of the many buildings in the former temple complex only two have been preserved, the Shakyamuni and the Vairocana Halls. The former has walls decorated with Buddhist frescos and houses a Shakyamuni statue. The Vairocan temple, rebuilt in 1342, contains an earthenware statue of the Buddha Vairocana, hundreds of wall-paintings representing scenes from paradise, hell and the mortal world and religious (Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian) and human figures (emperors, empresses, queens, ladies-in-waiting, etc.). All the statues and wall paintings date from the 14th C.