Main Hall of Taiping Xingguo Buddhist Temple

Main Hall of Taiping Xingguo Buddhist Temple

The Main Hall of Taiping Xingguo Buddhist Temple is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

It is located within the compound at No. 17 Qixiu Road, Nantong City. In historical records such as the Tongzhou Annals from various dynasties, Taiping Xingguo Buddhist Temple is referred to as [the temple], and is commonly known as the East Temple. An inscription from the ninth year of the Daoguang reign during the Qing Dynasty (1829) in the temple refers to it as Taiping Xingguo Buddhist Temple. The temple was originally built during the Qiandao era of the Southern Song Dynasty (1165–1173). According to records, in the fourteenth year of the Zhizheng reign of the Yuan Dynasty (1354), the main hall was destroyed by flooding, but it was rebuilt in the fourteenth year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty (1381) and renovated again during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. Historical accounts indicate that the temple originally had structures such as the Vajra Hall, Kṣitigarbha Hall, and Chao Palace Hall, but only the main hall remains today. The main hall features wooden construction with a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof, measuring three bays in both width and depth, with a nearly square floor plan. The front bay has four golden columns resting on shallow-relief inverted-basin style column bases, while the two rear golden columns are melon-shaped. The roof truss has a gentle slope, and the exterior bracket sets are intricately designed with layered complexity. The ancient window lattices are relatively simple and unadorned.

Further Reading:

· First and Second Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units