Pagodas & Buddhist Temples in China

Perched at 3,700 meters above sea level, the Potala Palace was the winter residence of the Dalai Lama. This 13-story structure contains over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines, and 200,000 statues, making it the highest ancient palace in the world.

The Jokhang is considered the most sacred and important temple in Tibet. It houses the Jowo Rinpoche, a statue of the young Buddha said to have been blessed by Buddha himself, making it the most revered object in Tibetan Buddhism.

Carved out of a cliff face over 90 years, this 71-meter stone statue of Maitreya Buddha is the largest stone Buddha statue in the world. The statue's hair is arranged in 1,021 buns, and a sophisticated drainage system prevents erosion.

Over 2,300 caves and niches carved into limestone cliffs along the Yi River contain nearly 110,000 Buddhist stone statues. The centerpiece Vairocana Buddha at Fengxian Temple stands 17 meters tall with a serene expression.

A system of 492 temples containing the world's richest collection of Buddhist art spanning 1,000 years. The caves contain 2,415 painted sculptures and approximately 45,000 square meters of murals, the largest collection of Buddhist art in existence.

This ancient temple gained worldwide fame when archaeologists discovered a Buddha finger bone relic in its underground palace in 1987, along with hundreds of Tang Dynasty treasures including gold and silver artifacts.

Over 50,000 intricately carved statues and 100,000 Chinese characters along five cliff faces. The Buddhist Beishan and Baodingshan carvings are renowned for their aesthetic quality and diversity of subject matter.

252 caves with 51,000 Buddhist statues carved into 1 kilometer of sandstone cliffs. The earliest caves feature massive Buddha images up to 17 meters tall, representing the first peak of Chinese Buddhist sculpture.

Built to store Buddhist texts and relics brought back from India by the monk Xuanzang, this seven-story, 64-meter pagoda has become the symbol of Xi'an. Xuanzang's journey inspired the classic novel Journey to the West.

Standing 128 meters tall (153 meters total including its lotus throne and pedestal base), the Spring Temple Buddha in Lushan County, Henan Province, is the tallest statue in the world — surpassing the Statue of Liberty and the Leshan Giant Buddha. The colossal figure depicts Vairocana Buddha, the primordial Buddha of the Mahayana tradition. Construction began in 1997 and was completed in 2008, requiring 1,100 separate copper-cast sections, 108 kg of gold plating, and approximately 3,300 tons of copper-tungsten alloy. The statue sits within the Fodushan Scenic Area at an elevation of around 750 meters. A six-storey building is housed within the pedestal, and a spiral staircase leads to a viewing platform near the statue's waist. The surrounding complex includes a Buddhist monastery, hot spring resort (the 'Spring' in the name refers to nearby natural hot springs), and a large cultural park. The site was formerly called Tianrui Diqu and the nearby Tianrui Hot Spring remains a draw for visitors. At night, floodlighting makes the golden figure visible from great distances across the Henan plain. The project cost approximately 55 million USD and was funded through private investment and local government support.

Tibet's first monastery, built in the shape of a Buddhist mandala. The central temple represents Mount Meru, surrounded by temples for the four continents and eight sub-continents of Buddhist cosmology.

Beijing's largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist temple, a former imperial palace converted to a monastery. Its centerpiece is a 26-meter Maitreya Buddha carved from a single white sandalwood tree.