Temple Shuanglin-si （双林寺） reputed as an ancient painted sculptures museum, was included in World Heritage List by Unesco in year 1997 as an important cultural site of Pingyao City. The Temple is notable for its collection of more than 2000 decorated clay sculptures dated to 12-19th century. The 2052 pieces of colored sculptures include images of Buddha, Bodhisattva, Arahat, deities, warrior guardians, heavenly kings and common people were patterned on the design of the artistic tradition of Dynasty Song, Jin, and Yuan period. The themes depicted though are generally religious in nature but related to daily life of people. They appear life-like in form, reflecting the exquisite skills of artisans from Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty. The name Shunglin-si which means double tree was changed from the original name Zhongdu （中都寺）in Song Dynasty 960-1127). It was derived from description in a Buddhist Sutra mentioning that Buddha Sakyamuni entered Nirvana by the side of a river and between two trees in India. The two trees bloomed with white fragrant flowers after Buddha entered Nirvana. It was not clear when was the temple first established but the earliest restoration date indicated in The Stele relics was in year 571, which means the temple has at least a history of 1400 years. Worn out and gone through thousand years of wind and rain plus gone through several war period, the temple was near complete ruin condition in Yuan period, though repairs were carried on in many earlier dynasty. The present temple structures are mainly repaired and restored during Ming Dynasty.
The 8 of its 10 main shrine halls within its 3 courtyards are Heavenly King Hall, Arahat Hall, Mahavira Main Shrine Hall, One Thousand Buddha Hall, Sakyamuni Buddha Hall, Bodhisattva Hall, Dizang Hall and Guanyin Hall. At Heavenly King Hall, there are 4 Temple guardians and 8 Bodhisattva with Maitreya （弥勒菩萨）as the main. The 3 meter tall terracotta sculptures of the four Heavenly Kings （四大天王） below the eaves of Veranda, look mighty and magnificent. The plague under the eaves was written with 4 Chinese character Tianzhu Sheng-Jing (天竺胜境) which roughly means An Indian's Wonder-Land.
The man-like sculptures of the four Heavenly Kings are 3 meters in height, each hold in hand with a musical instrument Pipa （琵琶）, a sword, a snake and an umbrella, had become sketching subject of many art students.
Bodhisattva Hall （菩萨殿）and Buddha Sakyamuni Hall （释迦殿） are among the ten magnificent halls at the temple site. Buddha Sakyamuni Hall enshrined an image of Buddha with Bodhisattva Manjusri （文殊菩萨） and Samantabhadra （普贤菩萨） attended at his left and right. Sculpted images depicting Buddhist legends relating to Buddha are suspended on the wall with height varied from 0.3-3.5 meter. Like most of the halls, sculptures are displayed behind caged chambers in a tableaux form.
1650 pieces out of its 2052 sculptures are reported to be extant. Embedded at the wall of Bodhisattva Hall, are 480 sculptures of Bodhisattva images. The most renowned is the sculpture of Goddess of Mercy with thousand hands (千手观音菩萨）. The gilded sculpted Guanyin Bodhisattva in a cross-legged posture, was seated on a lotus.
The Clothing and ornaments decorated arms of the images in Bodhisattva Hall, were very rich and well sculpted.
The Skanda statue in the Hall of Thousand Buddha is considered a masterpiece of sculptural art of Buddhist culture from Ming Dynasty. The Chief deity is shown with his legs positioned over a coiled dragon. (photographing not permitted)
The Mahavira Main Shrine Hall enshrines three colored clay images of Buddha. And the Arahat Hall houses 18 Arahat images with exaggerated facial expressions differing from drunken, sick, dwarf, fat or thin. The mute arahat with eyebrows frowned and lips sealed, is most interesting. He looked as if he could not find a word to express how suffering was the world. (Photographing not permitted)
The 11 meter high ancient scholar trees in the central courtyard was said to be planted during Tang Dynasty ( 618-907). The tree continues surviving with two branches grown up from its hollowed trunk which is as big as to allow an adult to hide inside it.
Leaving Shuanlin-si heading for another ancient temple Zhenguo-si which is of equivalent importance in the history of Buddhism of China due to its wooden structure and the rare sculptures from 10th century.
Passing by villages where people are still staying in cave-form dwellings.
Shanxi is not a fertile land for crops due to the earth and drought. Millet and sorghum (gaoliang 高粱） are the only crops the local farmers can plant as they do not need lots of water to grow. Sorghum wine is popular among the Chinese and the red sorghum farm looks pretty in harvest time .
Temple of Zhenguo-si （镇国寺） is a key unit of presentation of cultural relics in Pingyao ancient town （平遥古城）. The structure of its Ten Thousand Buddha Building （万佛殿） is a rare architecture of Wudai era （五代时期）. As written on a beam in the hall and the date inscribed on the Stele, it was founded in 7th century during the reign of Emperor Tianhui of Northern Han Dynasty （北汉） in 963 AD and renovated in year 1540 and 1816.
The Temple site has two main halls plus a gate with two courtyards in between the three buildings. The Temple gate with Hall of Heavenly Kings are opened to the south at the entrance while to the north, is the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddha, the only building that survived from the short-lived Northern Han Dynasty. The Three Buddha Halls at the backyard was built in Qing Dynasty. The entire complex is surrounded by wall.
Temple of Zhenguo-si is located in the village of Hadong-cun, about 12km away from Pingyao and the site same as Shuanglin-si is also included in the world cultural heritage list. Temples of Zhengguo-si, Shuanglin-si and ancient walls are known as the three treasures of Pingyao city.
The original name of Zhenguo-si was Jing-Cheng Temple （京城宝刹）. The name was changed ｔｏ the present one in year 1540 during Ming Dynasty. Its Ten Thousand Buddha Hall was built in Northern Han Dynasty and renovated in Ming Dynasty with its original style maintained.
The Ten Thousand Buddha Hall measures 11.6 x 10.8 meter with average height of 8.8 meters, is almost square in shape. There are doors in front and at the back. The whole building is supported by 12 pillars directly plunged into ground without any stone pedestal.
The wooden structure of Ten Thousand Buddha Temple Hall, built in year 963AD, is the oldest structure and most important at the temple site.
The eleven colored sculptures inside the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddha are of high value. The structures are among the only example of 10th century Buddhist sculpture in China. The main image of Buddha Sakyamuni seated on a 6 meter long altar is flanked by his chief attendant, Ananda （阿南侍者）and Mahakashyapa （迦叶） plus other Bodhisattva. The sculpting design was quite close to the style of Tang Dynasty but contains some characteristic of Wudai period.
Ming murals found at the Three Buddha Hall （三佛殿） at the backyard of the site.
Frescoes depicting Sakyamuni Buddha's stories were the artworks of Ming Dynasty and they were preserved completely.
The Ten Thousand Buddha Temple Hall is one of oldest wood building in China, built slightly later than Temples Foguang-si and Nangchan-si of Wutaishan （五台山佛光寺和南禅寺）。
The Temple Hall of Ten Thousand Buddha Hall is notable for featuring very large brackets that hold up the roof and flying eaves. There is no ceiling inside the hall.
There are three halls at backyard dated back from Qing Dynasty. Guanyin Hall faces east and Dizang Hall faces west while the center is the Three Buddha Hall. The image of Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva （地藏菩萨）is enshrined in Dizang Hall with his followers and judges of ten level land underworld. All these Ming products are vivid and man-like. (photographing not permitted)
The building of Guanyin Hall and Three Buddha Hall.
Guanyin Hall
Designed wooden doors and windows.
The 1000 yrs old dragon scholar tree at the courtyard
We met a military guest in the temple garden while visiting the Temple. Being VIP, they were specially escorted with an internal guide and we were so fortunate to be invited to join them to go around the temple site. They further invited us to stay in their house in our next destination as they appreciated our great enthusiastic shown in China and its history.
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