Qualla: Qingzhou Longxing Temple

Qingzhou Longxing Temple: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 三猎, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1996, workers refurbishing a school sports field in Qingzhou, Shandong Province, struck a stone oil lamp. What followed was one of the most remarkable archaeological discoveries in modern Chinese history: beneath the playing field lay the remains of the Longxing Temple, a Buddhist sanctuary built during the Northern and Southern dynasties -- a period spanning roughly the 5th and 6th centuries CE -- and destroyed some 800 years later. Excavation revealed more than 400 Buddhist statues, many retaining traces of their original paint and gilt. The find was subsequently named one of China's 100 major archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

Read more: Qingzhou Longxing Temple on Qualla

Image: 三猎 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qingzhou Longxing Temple: The Hoard Beneath the Field

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 三猎, CC BY-SA 4.0. The statues had been deliberately buried. Whether they were hidden to protect them from iconoclasm during one of China's periodic campaigns against Buddhism, or interred as part of a ritual practice, remains debated. What is clear is that whoever placed them underground did so wi...

Read more: Qingzhou Longxing Temple on Qualla

Image: 三猎 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qingzhou Longxing Temple: Between Dynasties

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 三猎, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Northern and Southern dynasties era, when the Longxing Temple was built, was one of the most artistically productive periods in Chinese Buddhist history. China was politically fragmented, divided between northern kingdoms ruled by non-Han peoples and southern courts that main...

Read more: Qingzhou Longxing Temple on Qualla

Image: 三猎 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qingzhou Longxing Temple: From Qingzhou to Shenzhen

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 三猎, CC BY-SA 4.0. The statues were primarily placed in the collection of the Shenzhen Museum, more than 1,800 kilometers from where they were found. This decision reflected the realities of Chinese museum infrastructure in the 1990s -- Shenzhen, a special economic zone experiencing explosive growt...

Read more: Qingzhou Longxing Temple on Qualla

Image: 三猎 | CC BY-SA 4.0