Qiongzhu Temple

The temple is most renowned for the painted clay sculptures of the 500 Buddhist arhats (Chinese: 五百罗汉; pinyin: Wǔbǎi Luōhàn).

Li Guangxiu (Chinese: 黎广修; pinyin: Lí Guǎngxiū), a folk clay artist from Sichuan Province, took his students to Kunming where they spent seven years (1883–1890) to create the sculptures.

Each arhat is about one meter tall and is characterized by unique facial expressions and body gesture.

Some arhats are reaching for the Moon with extremely long arms, some are crossing the ocean on extra-long legs.

Besides the arhats, the temple also houses a collection of antithetical couplets from authors that range from the famous poet monk, Dandang of the late Ming dynasty, to the general Li Genyuan (1879–1965).