Longxing Temple in Tongnan

Longxing Temple in Tongnan

Longxing Temple is a cultural relic protection unit of Chongqing Municipality.

Longxing Temple is located on Mia'erpo Hill at Huijiudai Village, Xiaodu Town, about 40 kilometers south of Tongnan County. It sits on the edge of the ruins of Tang Dynasty's Tongliang County seat. Constructed in the fourth year of the Shun reign during the Ming Dynasty (1406), it originally had three halls, but today only the main hall and one bay of the rear hall remain. The main hall is a wooden structure with a hip-and-gable roof and post-and-lintel construction. The current roof has been changed to a tiled roof with small grey tiles; most of the wing corners and ridge ornaments have collapsed. It is built on a plain base that is 80 cm high. The central bay is 7 meters wide, the two side bays are 5.7 meters wide each, the surrounding aisle is 0.65 meters wide, making the total width 20.1 meters. The depth includes three bays, totaling 13.15 meters in depth, with a height of 8.2 meters and a floor area of 284.63 square meters.

The main hall of Longxing Temple features architectural styles from non-official Ming Dynasty buildings. Having undergone repairs and alterations over various dynasties, the overall structural framework and planar column grid of the main hall still retain characteristics of Ming Dynasty architecture. The roof is gently sloped, with deep overhangs on the upper eaves (2 meters), giving it a simple and classic appearance. The columns and beams are made of thick, sturdy timber. The interior partition walls, coated with plaster, still preserve exquisite ancient murals. Among the existing architectural components of the main hall, aside from those repaired or replaced later, all beams, columns, purlins, and brackets are adorned with intricate colored paintings. It is one of the ancient buildings in Chongqing from the Ming Dynasty period that retains a relatively large amount of well-preserved colored paintings and murals.

The architectural form, structure, material usage, craftsmanship, and especially the abundance of exquisitely detailed murals and colored paintings of Longxing Temple, make it a rare and representative site for studying the architectural techniques and ancient painting art of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the Chongqing region. It holds significant historical, scientific, and artistic value. In 1992, it was designated as a cultural relic protection unit of Chongqing Municipality by the Chongqing Municipal People’s Government. After Chongqing became a municipality directly under the central government, it was re-listed as a municipal cultural relic protection unit in 2000.