Yunju Temple

This guide to Yunju Temple in Beijing begins with the monk Jingwan in the early seventh century, watching emperors burn Buddhist scriptures and tear down temples, and his vow to carve the sutras into stone so no fire or war could erase them again. You'll hear how his students carried on the work for more than a thousand years, filling over fourteen thousand slabs, and how monks began lowering finished stones into a sealed chamber beneath the temple. It also covers the 1942 bombing that flattened the halls above. Consider what survived directly beneath your feet.