Guangji Temple

CHINA, Beijing

The temple was built during the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). It was destroyed by warfare during the late Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and was rebuilt during the Ming dynasty. It was expanded and repaired during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) but retained the original Ming dynasty layout. The rear of the temple was once damaged by fire but later repaired, and large-scale renovation took place in 1949. It was listed as a National Cultural Heritage Site in 2006.
Facing south, the principal buildings along the central axis include the main temple gate, Heavenly King Hall, Great Hero Hall, Perfect Understanding Hall, and sutra repository. The ordination hall is located in the northwest corner of the temple. From the Heavenly King Hall to the sutra repository there is a series of side halls and covered walkways, which form the boundary of the temple. The main temple gate consists of three archways, each with a hip-and-gable roof and linked by walls. The roofs are covered with green glazed tiles with yellow borders.
The five-bay wide Great Hero Hall has a single-eave hip-and-gable roof covered with yellow glazed cylindrical tiles. Statues of the Buddhas of the Past, Present, and Future and the Eighteen copper Arhats are enshrined within the hall. Behind the Buddha statues there is a painting of Sakyamuni Buddha Teaching the Dharma on Vulture Peak. It was painted during the time of Emperor Qianlong (reigned 1736 –1795) by Fuwen using his fingers. A 2 m high bronze three-legged cauldron, made in 1793 during the Qing dynasty, is located in front of the hall. The two-story sutra repository houses more than one hundred thousand fascicles of Buddhist texts, as well as stone rubbings of sutras from Fangshan Yunju Temple. Both the well-preserved ordination hall and the ordination platform were constructed from white marble in 1698.