Chinese Buddhist Temple

SIGHTSEEING, SARNATH Created : Jan 11, 2017, 02.18 PM IST

Shubham Mansingka

Shubham Mansingka is a full time traveller who has been to more than 15 states of India and zipped across Singapore, Thailand & Malaysia. He has extensively slow travelled across the Himalayas, Rajasthan, Goa, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, among other states.\nHis expertise lies in writing guides on offbeat destinations, food guides, trekking routes, adventure related content, budget travel guides and unique content on popular, touristy destinations. Other than Happytrips, he runs a very successful travel blog at www.Travelshoebum.com/.

Photo courtesy: Shubham Mansingka


This cute temple building is located in a different lane near Vaishali Restaurant and was founded in 1939 while the gate and compound wall were erected in 1952. The building is in a bright shade of red and yellow and has beautiful-looking Chinese designs. There are Chinese lanterns hanging on the walls and lots of pigeons hang around in very calm surroundings and small garden.

Inside the Chinese Temple are various statues of different sizes and the atmosphere is very tranquil even though the temple seems to be understated. There is a huge map of the route taken by the Chinese scholar Hiuen-Tsang in the 7th Century AD in the time of the great king Harshavardhana. A placard in the yellow walls of the temple indicates that the piece of land on which this temple was built earlier used to be a vegetable plot and mangrove.

An important feature of the Chinese Buddhist Temple is the representation of life of Buddha through photos and write-ups in Hindi, English and Chinese on a huge board. It gives a thorough insight of the same in the absence of pilgrims that are present at most sites in Sarnath.
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