THE SILK ROAD TOUR - continued

Day 10   7th June 2012 (Afternoon)

Baoji - Xi'an

-Famen temple

Famen Temple is located in Famen Town, Fufeng County, about 110 kilometers west of Xian City and 90 kilometers east of Baoji City. Initially established at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Famen Temple was given its name in the Tang Dynasty. With more than 1,700 years history, it is taken as the grandfather of temples and pagodas in Central China.  Famen Temple became an imperial temple and a holy place for Buddhism. Famen Temple in the Song Dynasty reached its largest scale, and during the period of the Republican China, the temple received its most comprehensive reconstruction. In 1981, a mysterious underground palace was re-awoken after 1,113 years, when the provincial government decided to rebuild the Stupa. A great number of valuable relics and treasures were unearthed, offering us important data to study the society of the Tang Dynasty. Famen Temple houses ten unmissable major sites, including the real finger bone of Sakyamuni, the most ancient Stupa underground palace, Tang Dynasty Mandala, 13 hawksbill coins, an imperial tea set, a Buddhist ritual apparatus, including a tin staff, 13 pieces of colour porcelain, more than 700 pieces of silk article and Buddhist relic boxes.
Statues and structures of modern architecture were recently added to enhance tourism.


to be continued