Faluo Temple

Faluo Temple 法螺寺

Faluo Temple, built during the Ming Dynasty, is a center of contemporary Buddhism located in a famous scenic area of Suzhou’s cold mountain ridge behind Tianping Mountain, west of Baimajian Longchi Ecological Park. According to the record of “Suzhou Prefectural Records – Vol. 9 – Temple View”, it was named “Fa Luo” because it is located in a secluded mountain dock with an ancient road twisting out from the bamboo bush resembling a spinning snail (a “fa luo” or conch). Another “Hanshan other industry” records: Zhao Jianguang for the burial of his father in the Hanshan purchase of land, selected the garden to build a house, and then constructed the Faluo Temple. In the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, a senior monk named Shi Deshen lived here and built the Great Compassion Hall, which was a highly influential temple at that time. The Qianlong emperor himself journeyed six times to the south of the Yangtze River, each time personally visiting the temple which the Royal Couplet awarded a plaque. There are still many well-preserved cliff carvings in the temple today, the largest of which was written by the Qianlong Emperor in his imperial hand.

Field Trip Information

RELIG 202 Modern Buddhism: Students conducted participant-observation of a contemporary Buddhist practice community to further enrich their understanding of Buddhism. In addition to experiencing modern Buddhist practices, the historical background of the temple and related records helped to inform students of how Buddhism developed to reach its modern form and provided them with the opportunity to think of similarities and differences over the religion’s.