Taiyuan - Temple of Respect for Kindness

(Local Name: Chongshan Si) The Temple of Respect for Kindness opposite the Provincial Museum dates from the Tang era (618-907). In 1381 Zhu Gang, the third son of the emperor of the day, ordered that it be completely rebuilt in honor of his mother, the empress. From the same period are the three Buddha statues, each 8.5m/28ft high, of Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy (with a thousand arms, a thousand eyes and eleven faces) and of the bodhisattvas Wenshu and Puxian, which are to be found in the Hall of Great Compassion (Dabei Dian). The temple also contains large numbers of Buddhist scriptures from the Song, Yuan and Ming period (10th-17th C).