Situated under the Luhua Peak in Taibai Mountains, Asoka Temple is 19 kilometers to the east of Ningbo and is one of the "China Five Buddhist Mountains". The temple was built in 282 AC, so it is over 1700 years old.

Asoka Temple plays an important role in the cultural exchanges between China and Japan and it is especially famous both at home and abroad for the Buddhist treasure: a bone from the top of Sakyamuni's head which is kept as a relic here. The Stupa is put in the 7-step stone pagoda (about half a meter high with five stories) in the splendid Hall of Stupa. Behind the pagoda is the lying portrait of Sakyamuni. On the Hall of Stupa hangs Emperor Song Gao Zong's inscription "Foding Guangming Zhita (Pagoda of Top Bright Buddha) and Emperor Song Xiao Zong "Miaosheng Zhidian (The Most Wonderful Hall)

Asoka Temple is grand in size with its splendid halls. The temple consists of over 600 rooms including Grand Buddha Hall and the Hall of Stupa, and occupies 80,000 square meters. In the temple are kept many cultural relics such as "King Asoka's (Tang Dynasty) Resident Field Stele", Stele of 'Story of Chen Kui Pavilion' by Sushi (a famous poet in Song Dynasty), and "the Inscription of Wonderful and Happy Spring" by Zhang Jiucheng (Number One Scholar in Song Dynasty).

Asoka Temple is a major Buddhist Temple in China and of provincial-level protection.