A massive, two-meter-high boulder sitting on the west side of the Yunnan-Tibet Highway once stopped an invading army. According to local history, an invading force retreated when they encountered an old woman carrying this four-meter-wide Cangshan stone with a simple straw rope. The soldiers reasoned that if an elder possessed such strength, the local youth would be invincible.

This legendary boulder became the foundation for a sanctuary. In 1874, Governor Cen Yuying commissioned the construction of a double-eaved, hip-and-gable pavilion directly on top of the stone. Builders carved the entire structure from cool, white Dali marble. Behind this monument, military commander Yang Yuke expanded the complex in 1876, raising a grand seven-bay main hall held together by a complex four-layered bracket system.

The temple has weathered deep political and social shifts. In the mid-to-late 20th century, the state demolished the Luohan Hall and converted the sanctuary into a hospital, replacing Buddhist chants with the quiet murmurs of patients and doctors. Restored in 1988, the complex returned to its original three-part layout.

Now serving as the headquarters of the Dali City Buddhist Association, the temple remains a sanctuary of living tradition. On the nineteenth day of the second, sixth, and ninth lunar months, the air fills with the sweet scent of incense and the rhythmic click of wooden fish. Thousands of Bai people gather for the Guanyin Assembly, their voices carrying ancient prayers across the marble bridges, keeping a thousand-year-old promise of peace alive.