龙山童子寺遗址

Tongzi Temple of Longshan Mountain

童子寺是北齐,隋唐时期著名的佛教寺院,开凿于北齐天保七年(556年).属于石窟与寺院相结合的山地佛寺类型。入唐以后.又得到唐皇室的重视;金天辅元年(1117年)毁于兵火;明嘉靖元年(1522年)重建;清乾隆和嘉庆时曾做修葺.嘉庆以后这座千年古刹逐渐荒废.并为灌木树林所掩盖。2002年以来.中国社科院考古研究所与山西省考古研究所、太原市文物考古研究所联合组成考古队.对童子寺佛寺遗址进行了4年的发掘.弄清了童子寺的形制与布局以及现存遗址的年代。迄今为止.国内尚未发掘过同类寺院遗址.尤其是大佛前的佛阁建筑还没有发现过。遗址中还罕见地出土了两种不同样式的北齐佛.菩萨和力士像等。该寺院遗址的发掘对于研究这一时期寺院的形制布局以及佛教史都具有重要意义。

Tongzi Temple,a well-known Buddhist temple dating back to the Northern Qi and Sui and Tang dynasties,was initially built in 55,the 7th year under the reign of Emperor Tianbao in Northern Qi.As a combination of grotto and Buddhist temple,Tongzi Temple was valued a lot by imperial family of Tang Dynasty.Destroyed by war and fire in 1117 in Jin Dynasty and rebuilt in 1522 in Ming Dynasty,the temple underwent several repairs under the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty and was desolated and covered by forests after the reign of Qing Emperor Jiaqing.Since 2002,Institute of Archaeology;CASS,Archaeological Institute of Shanxi Province and Taiyuan Cultural Relics and Archaeological Institute jointly carried out the excavation at Taiyuan Tongzi Temple relics for four years, finding out the structure,layout and the time of construction for the existing relics. Such temple relics have never been excavated in China,especially the arrangement of the Buddhist architecture in front of the Giant Buddha has never been found before.Two sorts of rarely-seen and different Northern Qi Bhddhas,Bodhisattva and the clay statue of Mighty Deity were unearthed in the relics.The excavation of the temple relics has an important significance in the research of the structure and layout as well as the Buddhist history of temples of that period.