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| statues of Buddha in Fengguo Temple |
The construction of the Fengguo Temple started in 1020, and was completed in 1205, lasting 6 years. The temple has fallen into disuse and experienced reconstruction several times. Today, the shrine of Sakyamuni Buddha, the Hall of Amita, the Bell Pavilion, stele pavilion, inner temple gate and the memorial archway, etc. still stay there.
The shrine of Sakyamuni Buddha is a single-eaved building with 5 ridges, is 21 meters tall, 55.6 meters long from east to west and 32.8 meter from south to north, and has a construction area of 1,824 square meters. As the hall utilized many mechanics principles when it was built, it is still in a very good condition after thousands of years, showing the high architectural level in ancient China.
The column base of the hall is built of limestone with a planar area of 1.2 square meters. On the brick platforms north of the hall center stand seven Buddha statues from west to east including Sakaymuni. The one right in the middle is the statue of Vipassi Buddha, which is 9.5 meters tall, the highest among them. The Buddha statues at both sides are lower one after another; in front of each Buddha there is two servant Bodhisattvas of 2.5 meters tall each, and on the east and west sides of each Buddha there are one powerful warrior attendant of 3.5 meters tall. There are many colorful paintings of the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) on the beam purlins and the corbel brackets inside the hall, and some of them are still in a very good condition, among which 42 flying Apsaras paintings at the bottom of beam shelves are obviously well maintained. Some of the flying Apsaras are holding flower bunch of flowers, some of them are holding fruit plates in a posture as if they are worshipping the 7 Buddha; some of them wear crowns on the head, arrange the hair on the both temples, wear bracelets and long skirts with long ribbons flying gracefully high in the clouds.
The walls of the hall are painted with 5 Buddhas on the east and west walls, 8 bodhisattvas on the north wall and 18 arhats on the front wall. All the paintings were painted with ease, grace, elegance and bright color. The figures are lifelike. At the back door of the hall there stands a sitting Kwan-yin, which was rebuilt in 1603 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), with 53 the Celestial youths of the Treasure of Merit and dragon girls on both sides.
On the platform in front of the shrine of Sakyamuni Buddha stand the bell pavilion of six ridges and six columns with an iron bell in the east side, and the stele pavilion that houses two stone steles of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
The hall of Amita Buddha is 20 meters wide from east to west, 16 meters long from south to north and 9 meters tall from bottom to the top of the hall ridge. In the middle of the hall’s front corridor stands a tablet with the name of the hall on it. A 1.3-meter-tall sandalwood statue of Longevity Buddha stands in the middle of the hall, and the pedestal of the Buddha has six layers and is 0.8 meters high. The east and west walls of the hall are painted with the colorful images of Four Heavenly Guardians.
Outside the inner gate of the Buddhist temple, there is a pair of stone-carved lions. Above the gates is hung a tablet with three big Chinese characters that mean Big Buddha Temple, written by Liu Zhonglin, a calligrapher in ancient China.
(Source: chinaculture.org)
