Linggu Temple

The site is a Buddhist temple set in a park. It is the southeastern part of the Purple Mountain area, east of the Mingxiaoling Mausoleum. The original Linggu Temple was at the place where the Mingxiaoling Mausoleum is now. But it was destroyed to make way for the mausoleum. There are three main buildings in the complex called the Beamless Hall, the Linggu Pagoda and a Buddhist temple.

The Beamless (Wuliang) Hall at the site was constructed in 1831, and it is 22 meters high and 53.8 meters wide. The hall was made with stone arches and without wooden beams, so this makes the building distinctive. There are mannequins that depict Chinese history in it now.

The Linggu Pagoda is a pagoda that is about 10 stories tall that was built in 1930. There is also a Buddhist temple building. The site has a shrine that is said to harbor the skull of a Chinese monk who went to India to collect Buddhist scriptures long ago.

To reach the Linggu Temple area, you can walk on trails east from the Mingxiaoling Mausoleum. Sun Yat-Sen’s Mausoleum is to the north. An afternoon tour may include a visit to all the three main sites. You can take shuttles between the sites since roads connect them.