Jinshan: the White Snake story and the temple beyond it
Read the White Snake legend against Jinshan's hillside architecture, rebuilding history and continuing life as a Buddhist monastery.
Jinshan Temple
A hillside Buddhist monastery where the White Snake legend meets a much longer religious and architectural history.
Jinshan, also known as Jiangtian Chan Temple, is both a functioning monastery and a setting in the White Snake story. Its tightly clustered halls and elevated pagoda are an invitation to look vertically. The institution has ancient roots, while individual buildings embody later rebuilding. Separate a scene from the legend from a date on a monument, and both become more interesting.
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Photo credits and rights
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The entrance to Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, photographed in August 2024.Yumeto · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Resized and converted to WebP.