Baoguang Si
Legend has it that the predecessor of the Baoguang Si (Precious Light Temple) in Xindu County, 19 km from downtown Chengdu, was the Big Rock Temple established during the Han Dynasty. This was where Emperor Xizong of the late Tang Dynasty took refuge after the capital city of Chang’an fell into the hands of peasant uprising led by Huang Chao. One night during his stay in the temple, the emperor saw a light emitting from a Buddhist sarira enshrined in one of its halls, and he issued instructions to give the temple a new name: Baoguang Temple, meaning the Temple of Precious Light. During the Song Dynasty, it was renamed the Dajue (Great Enlightenment) Temple, and towards the end of the Ming Dynasty it was razed to the ground by war.
The Baoguang Temple as it stands today was rebuilt in 1670 (9th year of the Kangxi reign, Qing dynasty), an impressive complex of 80,000 square meters that contains a pagoda, five main halls, and 16 compounds. The centerpiece consists of a Hall of Deva-kings, a Sarira Pagoda, a Seven-Buddha Hall, a Mahavira Hall, and a Tripitaka Pavilion. All the flank rooms and quadrangles are connected by corridors. The magnitude of the entire cluster is vastly enhanced by an ocean of roofs covered with green-glazed tiles and decorated with vermilion-painted eaves. In the Hall of 500 Arhats, all the sculptures stand about two meters tall and every arhat looks lifelike with different expressions and postures. On public display in the temple are a vast collection of precious scrolls of calligraphy, traditional Chinese paintings, and other valuable artifacts.
