Jiaxing Thousand Buddha Pavilion

Jiaxing Thousand Buddha Pavilion

The Jiaxing Thousand Buddha Pavilion is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Thousand Buddha Pavilion is an important part of the Tianning Yongzuo Chan Temple complex. Mr. Zhao Puchu, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and President of the Buddhist Association of China, personally inscribed the nameplate for the pavilion, and the renowned ancient architecture expert Professor Chen Congzhou praised it as "the No. 1 Pavilion in Zhejiang."

The Thousand Buddha Pavilion is a Ming Dynasty brick-and-wood structure, consisting of two floors, with a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof style, featuring single-curved and double-rising seven-step brackets. It is 27.5 meters wide, 17 meters deep, and 23 meters high, with a total area of 1,000 square meters spread over two levels.

The surrounding structure consists of square stone columns with inclined bases, while the interior features round camphor wood columns with inclined bases, each 50 centimeters in diameter. These columns run from the ground to the roof, with stone bases adorned with exquisite patterns at both top and bottom. The main beam, made of nanmu wood, is painted with a “double dragons competing for a pearl” design, while the secondary beams feature paintings of “clouds and cranes.” Round rafters, covered with cylindrical blue tiles, rise at the corners of the roof, where wind chimes are hung. The brackets are of the five-tiered type, with double downward-rising arms and solid construction, totaling 136 brackets. Over 300 wooden carvings are found on components such as the wing brackets, beam brackets, corridor supports, spandrel brackets, and divider frames, most depicting flowers, birds, animals, and a small number of pavilions, towers, and other architectural motifs.

The base is a Taihu stone Sumeru pedestal, measuring 34 meters in length, 23 meters in width, and 1.3 meters in height. It features over 30 relief sculptures, including “two dragons playing with a pearl,” “a phoenix weaving through peonies,” “sparrows and plum blossoms competing for spring,” “intertwined lotus flowers,” “qilin,” and “cranes,” along with inscriptions.

The Thousand Buddha Pavilion was first built in the third year of the Tang Dynasty’s Dali era (768), originally named the Great Thousand Buddha Treasure Pavilion. It was destroyed at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and rebuilt during the early Ming Dynasty under the vow of Monk Fanqi, who also cast bronze statues of a thousand Buddhas for enshrinement. It was reconstructed again in the first year of the Chongzhen era (1628), with the nameplate inscribed by Zhu Youlang, the Prince of Gui of the Ming Dynasty. It underwent two restorations during the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong and Tongzhi eras. In 1937, the 26th year of the Republic of China and early in the War of Resistance, it was damaged by artillery fire. It was restored once more in 1984. It was listed as a county-level key protected unit in 1980, received funding for repairs in both 1985 and 1987, and was designated as a provincial-level key cultural relic protection unit in 1990.

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relic Protection Units