The Hanging Temple of Hengshan

The visible poles are not holding it up, and Buddha, Lao-Tzu and Confucius share a room

A monastery pinned to a cliff face 75 metres above the canyon floor in Shanxi, begun around 491 by a monk called Liaoran under the Northern Wei, which makes it over 1,500 years old. The wooden poles you can see underneath it are not really what is holding it up: the load goes into crossbeams driven deep into the bedrock, with iron chains and beams behind them, and the poles take a share. It also sits in a basin in the canyon, sheltered from sun, rain and the worst of the wind. A timber building on a cliff needed both. It is also the only temple in China that gives all three of the country’s traditions equal footing: in the Hall of Three Religions, Śakyamuni sits in the middle with Lao-Tzu on his left and Confucius on his right. Restored between September 2015 and May 2016 and open again. Hunyuan County, Datong.