Statue at Xitian Temple

Statue at Xitian Temple

The Statue at Xitian Temple is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Statue at Xitian Temple is located in Zibo City, Shandong Province.

Xitian Temple was originally built during the Later Zhao Dynasty of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period by Emperor Shi Hu and was initially named Xingguo Temple. It was later renamed Guanghua Temple and underwent several cycles of rise and decline. It flourished during the Northern Wei Dynasty when the temple complex spanned 1.5 kilometers from north to south, making it one of the larger temple constructions in China at the time, featuring a significant number of Buddha statues and a thriving incense offering tradition. In the early Ming Dynasty, a new temple was built on the site of the former Guanghua Temple and was renamed Xitian Temple. The Xitian Temple statue stands 5.6 meters tall and is the largest surviving single stone Buddha statue in East China. It is commonly known as the "Zhangba Buddha" or the "Amitayus Buddha."

The main hall of the temple has nine bays, constructed with brick and wood, featuring red bricks, green tiles, flying eaves, and upturned rafters. At the front, there is a more than ten-foot-tall bronze seated statue of Sakyamuni Buddha, flanked by various Bodhisattva statues. On both sides are arranged eighteen Arhat statues, while the front hall houses a statue of Maitreya Buddha. The side halls serve as offices, and there are multiple courtyards for monks’ quarters. In the temple courtyard, there is a bell tower that hangs an iron bell approximately 2 meters high. Next to the bell tower are two stone Bixi turtles carrying steles with dragon heads, each over two zhang tall, describing the construction history of the temple. To the east of the main hall, there is a courtyard with six circular stupas arranged in two rows from east to west, commonly known as the "Stick-Pounding Towers," which serve as burial sites for the ashes of past eminent monks of the temple. Additionally, about 1,500 meters south of the temple, there is a cluster of towers consisting of six stone stupas. These six towers are arranged from east to west. Except for two smaller ones, the other four have base diameters of about one zhang and heights of over three zhang. They are purely stone-structured octagonal seven-story stupas with exquisitely carved reliefs of figures and birds and beasts that are remarkably lifelike. The current temple was rebuilt during the Qing Dynasty and features a gable-and-hip wooden structure. The main building is 25.5 meters tall, 19.9 meters long, and covers an area of 505.46 square meters. The temple houses an iron bell cast through donations by Li Daotai, who passed the imperial examination as a Jinshi in the second year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1663 AD), along with his descendants and resident monks. There are also seven pairs of wooden couplet plaques inscribed with calligraphy, dating back to the 10th year of the Yongzheng reign (1732 AD), as well as those from the Ming Dynasty's TianShun era (1453–1464 AD) by imperial examination candidates Zeng Guansheng and Zeng Naisheng, the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong Dingchou reign Jinshi Zeng Xiyuan, Qianlong Renxu reign Jinshi Zeng Zhongdeng, and Zeng Qingyang. There is also an ancient sandalwood plaque commemorating the patriarchs of the Western Pure Land, a Qing Dynasty-carved statue of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, and a copper incense burner donated in the eighth year of the Guangxu reign by Yongchun’s Xu Guangdong.

In 2006, the Statue at Xitian Temple was included by the State Council in the sixth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units