The structural unit of a Buddhist temple was a courtyard made up of a gate and a main hall connected by a corridor. A large temple might consist of a dozen such courtyards. Inside the temple would be a tall pagoda. The temple was usually surrounded by trees, bamboos, fields of vegetables or grain crops.

Many of the temples in Chang'an were grand, built by the imperial family or the government. The Ci'an Temple (today known as the Wild Goose Pagoda) was built by Prince Li Zhi ( who later became Emperor Gaozong) in memory of his mother Empress Wende. The Jianfu Temple was built by the Emperor Zhongzong on the basis of the mansion of Princess Xiangcheng, daughter of Emperor Taizong. These temples were extremely magnificent buildings that cost incredibly large sums of money.

The emperors' worshipping of Buddha strongly affected the life of Chang'an as well as that of the whole country. In 645, famous Buddhist master Xuanzhuang took the Silk Road from Chang'an to India to study Buddhism. He travelled far and wide in the subcontinent and the Western Regions for thousands of miles and meticulously engaged in the studies of Buddhism for 17 years, winning great honour for his attainment in Buddhist learning. When he returned to Chang'an, the court dispatched officials and monks to go out of the city to welcome him, and Emperor Taizong personally presided over the grand welcoming ceremony. Thousands of thousands of the capital's residents lined the road to watch the procession. In 664, when Xuanzhuang died, Emperor Gaozong dismissed his court meeting to mourn the great Buddhist master's death. Emperor Suzhong later named the pagoda keeping Xuanzhuang's remains "Xingjiao"(meaning "developing the religion"), which later became the name of the temple built to include the pagoda. The Xingjiao Temple has survived more than a thousand years and is famous both at home and abroad today.

The well-known Famen Temple was called Asoka Temple in ancient times. The pagoda in the temple was known as the Asoka Pagoda, famous for safe-keeping Buddha Sakyamuni's finger bone. Emperors held grand ceremonies seven times during the Tang period to bring Buddha's relics from the Famen Temple to Chang'an for worship. In 1982, the pagoda collapsed in heavy rain and in 1987, when the pagoda was being rebuilt, a crypt directly under the structure was discovered. It was from this crypt where archaeologists unearthed Buddha's finger bone and a large number of invaluable artefacts which had been stored inside the crypt since the 14th year of Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty (ie,874). These artefacts were contributions offered on the occasion of bringing the Buddha's relics of Chang'an for worship.

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