Zhangye Giant Buddha Temple

Zhangye Giant Buddha Temple, or Dafosi, is located within the city of Zhangye. It was built in 1098 during the Western Xia period (1038 - 1227) and revamped many times during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The main hall that houses the giant Buddha was restored during the Qianlong reign (1736-1795) of the Qing Dynasty.The hall is 49 meters wide and 24 meters deep with a total floor space of 1,370 square meters. It is the largest structure dating from the Western Xia period in Gansu. 

The giant Buddha lies in the middle of the hall. A massive painted clay statue with a wooden skeleton, it is 34.5 meters long and 7.5 meters from shoulder to shoulder and its ears exceed 2 meters in length. The walls of the hall are covered with paintings. Apart from some pictures of the Buddha's warrior attendants, most of the semurals depict Buddhist stories and episodes from Journey to the West, a classic Chinese mythological novel written during the Ming Dynasty.

The temple has in its collection a great number of brick and wood carvings and a rare copy of Tripitaka, which provide good material for the study of the history of Buddhism, architecture, culture, and arts in the area west of the Yellow River in Gansu in ancient times.