Dafo Temple, Zhangye

The Dafo Temple, Zhangye (Chinese: 张掖大佛寺; pinyin: Zhāngyè Dàfó Sì), or Great Buddha Temple, is an ancient Buddhist temple in Zhangye, Gansu, China, notable for its gigantic reclining Buddha statue of around 1100, which is thirty-five metres long. After a restoration project in 2005–06, the Temple now attracts thousands of visitors. It has had several names over the centuries, including the Kasyapa Buddha Temple, the Bojue Temple, the Hongren Temple, and the Reclining Buddha Temple. The present name of "Dafo" means "Great Buddha".

The temple's huge statue is made of clay on a wooden frame and depicts the Gautama Buddha's attainment of nirvana, with his ten disciples standing behind him. It is largely unaltered since the time of the Western Xia. With a length of some 35 metres (115 ft), Ruth W. Dunnell has described it as "the largest reclining clay Buddha statue in China".

The hall which contains the Buddha is 48 metres (157 ft) long and 24 metres (79 ft) wide, with a height of 33 metres (108 ft). It has a Qing dynasty mural and is one of the few wooden structures of its period which survive. The mural tells the story of Xuanzang and his followers, showing Xuanzang riding on a horse and the monkey king Sun Wukong kneeling on the ground.

The temple was built around the beginning of the 12th century, during the Western Xia period. Zhangye (then called "Ganzhou”) was the capital city of the Hugu. In 1028, the Tibeto-Burman speaking Tangut people took over Ganzhou, and a few years later the Western Xia controlled the Hexi Corridor. To strengthen their hold over the area, the Xia built temples and ordered the translation of the Buddhist scriptures. They were especially strong during the reign of Emperor Li Qiangshun (1086–1139), and the Dafo Temple dates from this time.

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