001 Architecture Foguang Temple Foguang Temple lies in Wutai County, Shanxi, and takes its name from an auspicious response of "Buddha's light." In the fifth year of the Dali era of the Tang, the monk Facao saw several beams of white light to the temple's south; during the Yuanhe era there was a memorial reporting that "auspicious clouds appeared beside Foguang Temple." The Dunhuang Record of a Journey to Mount Wutai describes its seven-bay great Buddha hall and its three-story, seven-bay Maitreya pavilion; after the Huichang persecution the monk Yuancheng "sought out Foguang Temple anew" and rebuilt it step by step. The East Hall that survives today is a relic of that reconstruction. Tang Dynasty Wutai County, Shanxi Province Foguang Temple · Great Foguang Temple · Mount Wutai →
002 Architecture Nanchan Temple The main hall of Nanchan Temple is located in Lijia Village, Wutai County, Shanxi. An ink inscription under the beam reads “restored in the third year of Jianzhong of the Great Tang,” making it one of the earliest surviving Tang-dynasty timber structures with a definite date. Pre-restoration survey photos from 1953 show that the front-eave doors and windows, the eave bracket projections, and structural details still preserve original Tang construction. Tang Dynasty Wutai County, Shanxi Province Nanchan Temple Main Hall · Nanchan Temple · Lijiazhuang →
003 Architecture Xiantong Monastery Xiantong Monastery is located in Taihuai Town, Wutai County, Xinzhou, Shanxi Province. In the time of Wu Zetian of Tang, Dafu Lingjiu Monastery was renamed Great Huayan Monastery. The Tang Huayan monk Chengguan lectured at the monastery and wrote a new commentary on the Huayan Sutra. The Northern Song court included Huayan Monastery among the ten monasteries of the Five Terraces to be rebuilt; in the Ming Yongle era the Buddhist registry of Mount Wutai was established at the monastery, and the monastery and its Buddha śarīra stupa were rebuilt. In the thirty-third and thirty-fourth years of Wanli (1605–1606), the Ming monk Miaofeng Fudeng installed the copper hall and completed the brick “Seven Sites and Nine Assemblies” hall, leaving the copper hall and the beamless hall as the monastery’s core Ming-dynasty remains. Tang dynasty Wutai County, Xinzhou, Shanxi Province Xiantong Monastery · Great Xiantong Monastery · Dafu Lingjiu Monastery →