Qinglian Fahua Temple

Qinglian Fahua Temple

Qinglian Fahua Temple is a cultural heritage site protected by Jiangyou City.

Fahua Temple is located in Qinglian Town. The extant structures include the Mahavira Hall and two stone stelae. The hall has a rectangular floor plan and is built on a rammed earth platform. It is a small building with a suspended gable roof covered in greenish-gray tiles, featuring a front eaves porch. The hall spans five bays in width, totaling 21.5 meters, and four bays in depth, totaling 11.6 meters. Its wooden structure combines post-and-lintel (chuandou) and through-tenon (tiaoliang) construction methods, with a total of 16 wooden columns and two square stone pillars on the gable walls, each resting on flat drum-shaped stone bases. Between the inner columns of the central and side bays, a five-rafter beam is used, with intermediate posts supporting a three-rafter beam above. Between the front eaves inner columns, a double-step beam is employed, extending through the eave columns to form an overhanging eave, with decorative cantilever brackets mounted above. The roof is covered with small greenish-gray tiles without lime plastering on the upper part, featuring straight drip tiles at the eaves, and a central section adorned with grey-glazed sculpted dragon finials on a brick-tiled base. The front eaves’ central bay is fitted with six-panel lattice doors, while the side bays have lattice windows set into raised sills. The rear eaves and both gable walls are made of earthen plaster. Two stone stelae inscribed with merit donations stand in front of the hall, bearing the inscription “The 28th Year of the Daoguang Reign (1848), Qing Dynasty.” The existing Mahavira Hall of Fahua Temple retains a complete structure and is one of the rare surviving examples of Qing Dynasty architecture in our city, providing valuable physical material for the study of local Qing architectural styles and craftsmanship.