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Kaiyuan Si

Date: 2007-12-29 14:04 | Author: webmaster | From: 本站原创 |

Kaiyuan Si

This large and once-celebrated temple suffered terrible destruction in the 20th century, but its large main courtyard dotted with stelae is pleasant and shady. Gaudy apsaras (female spirts of nature) support the beams of its main hall, which holds five Buddhas, behind which the 18luohanstand on either side of a Guanyin. In a hall farther back, deeper than it is wide, a three-tiered terrace supports a seated figure on a "thousand Buddha"-studded lotus; a canopy overhead is carved with clouds and gilded birds. To either side of stairs on four sides are large bug-eyed figures with raised fists. The ceiling is fantastically ornate, with layers of brackets in ever-diminishing sizes to a central circle.

Farther west, a 1,300-year-old mulberry is locked away for its own protection. The registers of a plump squat stone pagoda of five stories is carved with figures out of a solid chunk of granite; its solid stone brackets imitating wood are home to generations of swallows. There's another, similar pagoda on the east side.

Hours8am-6pm
Location176 Xi Jie
PricesAdmission ¥4 (50¢)

TAG: si kaiyuan

 

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