6/28/2006: Hanging monastery

I've never seen this before and so it was remarkable to me.

And since there isn't even a Wikipedia entry for this amazing landmark, found in the Shanxi province, maybe a lot of you haven't seen it.

Not hanging, literally, but cantilevered into the side of this rock face is the Hengshan hanging monastery.

Says here the monastery dates back over 1400 years to the Northern Wei Dynasty. However, most of what you see today are reconstructions made during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties.



Well at least they put in a handrail. Who's first up those 700-year-old stairs?

The pavilion to the far right is roughly 15 stories off the ground? I'm getting queasy just looking at this.

(for the record, I am afraid of falling, not of heights. Once I am assured that I will not plummet to my death (like going to the top of the CN Tower), I really enjoy myself. I get equally queasy on small stepstools and steep curbs)

Wow - that's really cool... reminds me of the Anasazi cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde.

When I grow up, I want my house to look just like that.

Or maybe the IntelSat building. I'm not sure yet.

Mmm, musta missed that one. I'll add it to the list.

It's hard to hit 7000 years of history and landmarks in three years.

Undertoad wrote:

However, most of what you see today are reconstructions made during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties.

That's what cracks me up -- the "modern restorations" are ~600 years old!
:lol:

Wow.

...Why?

Awesome. I want one just like it!

They look a little leery of the railings. :D

Is that bird shit streaking the sheer cliff faces above?

Prolly don't have to worry about privacy.
Great pics and informative links too. Thanks.

And yes, I had to. I pressed the fart button. I doesn't fart.

Hmmmm... some of the quarries around here might yield similar sheer rock walls...

Just beautiful... thanks for the post.

Griff wrote:

Hmmmm... some of the quarries around here might yield similar sheer rock walls...

If you build it we will come. ;)

The first two pictures look like the place is made of Lego and about six feet off the ground.

The third one, not so much.

I read a book that featured a very similar structure - Dan Simmons or Sheri S Tepper I think. Far too similar to have been by chance, the descriptions were vivid enough to stay with me even if the book has not.

Beautiful, but a terrifying prospect for me (I have a similar fear to Wolf but need more reassurance as I'm not physically brave).

I can't imagine how it actually stays attached to the rock face. It can't be just resting on that ledge.
I guess they don't make Monastery Glue like they used to.

I assume they drilled into the rock and slid supporting beams deep into it. A cantilever like that would be very strong and rigid. There probably isn't even any bounce in the floors. If you build on those beams you can keep the rain off the supports keeping them dry and you've got construction capable of lasting Chinese amounts of time.

Where's the garage? You don't expect me to walk up there, do you?

There are houses in the canyons of Los Angeles that are pretty much like that.

Except that they're filled with coke and pron starlets instead of rice and monks.

And within the next 20 years, an earthquake will probably cause them to fall right off. I'm betting on the Chinese outlasting the Californians.

Griff wrote:

...snip...you've got construction capable of lasting Chinese amounts of time.

Chinese amounts of time.

Imponderable.

I'm getting vertigo just thinking about the enormity of that.

There was a David Whyte tape I had wherein he spoke about a similar monastery built on cliffs, maybe this one, where the novice mon ks would be sealed up in caves for three years, three months, and three days. Their food lowered to them by rope each day and their waste carried up.

He made a joke referring to a line in a poem by Mary Oliver.

I think it may have been these cliffs.

Ugh....very cool, but no thanks. I don't handle heights very well at all.

Oh my, that's amazing, and it looks wonderful. Thanks for posting this.