Olejar Books

Indian temple styles combined with traditional Chinese architectural forms in the Buddhist buildings of China to provide an impressive symbiosis of cultures. With the spread and integration of Buddhism with Confucianism, devotional buildings underwent an evolution. Numerous pagodas, temples and grottos with statues of Buddha and other gods have survived. The Chinese Buddhist temples were organized around courtyards and verandas with a central pagoda surrounded by smaller houses for the monks. There are also two main categories of grotto temples cut into hillsides: Phil, based on a square plan, and the horseshoe-shaped Shiite temples.