Chengtian Temple

CHINA, Fujian, Quanzhou

Chengtian means Following the Heavenly Way. It is also known as Yuetai (Moon Platform) Temple. It was originally a villa and was converted to a temple in 957 during the Southern Tang Kingdom. The temple has been repaired a number of times. It had more than 40 buildings when it was at its most prosperous. The existing buildings result from restoration work carried out in 1691, during the Qing dynasty. The most recent repairs were undertaken in 1990. It is listed as a Municipal Cultural Heritage Site.
Even though the temple faces south, the temple gate faces west. The layout of the temple can be separated into three axes. Along the central axis there are the Heavenly King Hall, Maitreya Hall, Great Hero Hall, Dharma Hall, Manjusri Hall, and the bell and drum towers. Along the eastern axis there are the Yuanchang Courtyard, Guangqin Library, Great Compassion Pavilion, and Huiquan Hongchuan Memorial Hall. On the western axis there is the Tanyue Ancestral Hall.
The five-by-seven bay Great Hero Hall has a double-eave hip-and-gable roof and occupies 668.8 sq m. Twenty-four engravings of Heavenly Kings can be found on both sides of the front veranda. There are 5 m high statues of Sakyamuni Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, and the Medicine Buddha enshrined within the hall.
The Great Compassion Pavilion has a triple-eave octagonal pyramidal roof and occupies 204.5 sq m. The main statue is an Eleven-Headed, Thousand-Armed, Thousand-Eyed Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, which dates back to the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368).
The temple houses rare artifacts, such as a bronze Indian statue of Amitabha Buddha dating back to the Sui dynasty (581–618), stone pillars from the Song dynasty (960–1279), as well as couplets written by Master Hongyi.