Temple of the Fifth Lord

Temple of the Fifth Lord

The Temple of the Fifth Lord, also known as the Ten Thousand Buddha Pavilion, is located in Taihuai Town, adjacent to the Great White Pagoda, and serves as another pathway to Xiantong Temple. The temple sits on a spacious site that once served as the imperial lodging and banquet palace for emperors of the Qing Dynasty during their pilgrimages to Mount Wutai—commonly referred to as the "Imperial City." The area between the "Imperial City" and the Ten Thousand Buddha Pavilion is bustling year-round with an endless stream of pilgrims and sightseers.

The Temple of the Fifth Lord, also called the Five Dragon Kings Hall, is a north-facing building. It was originally built during the Qing Dynasty and expanded during the Republican era with the addition of a front courtyard outside the main hall. Inside the hall, besides enshrining the Golden-Faced Dragon King, the Fifth Lord, statues of the First Lord, Second Lord, Dragon Mother, Third Lord, and the God of Rain are also arranged on his left and right.

The Five Dragon Kings Hall in Shanxi’s Temple of the Fifth Lord originally had a rolled shed roof, but it was rebuilt in 1917 with a single-eave hip-and-gable roof, four projecting corridors, five ridges and six mythical beast ornaments, with a bronze treasure spire atop the central ridge. There is also a rolled shed front porch in front, featuring carved beams and painted rafters, making it richly colorful.

Folklore says the Fifth Lord was originally dark-faced, but Manjushri Bodhisattva transformed into the Five Dragon Kings to widely benefit all beings, thus changing his face from black to gold. The Five Dragon Kings, who are the incarnation of Manjushri Bodhisattva, greatly enjoy watching operas. Therefore, a traditional opera stage was built opposite the Five Dragon Kings Hall, specially for performing plays for the Fifth Lord.

For this reason, even to this day, during the June Buddhist ceremony on Mount Wutai, famous performers and plays must be scheduled to perform at the Ten Thousand Buddha Pavilion—it is considered performing for the Fifth Dragon King.

The Fifth Lord enshrined in the temple is the honorific title of the Guanjie Dragon King, a manifestation of Manjushri Bodhisattva, and also an incarnation of the Five Manjushri Bodhisattvas on the Five Peaks of Mount Wutai. As such, this is the most popular temple for incense offerings on the entire mountain. In fact, it can be said that the Fifth Lord is essentially a localized and secularized version of Manjushri Bodhisattva in Taihuai, taking on the role of a folk deity and embodying the local people's wishes for favorable weather, peace, and prosperity.

Perhaps it is precisely because the Fifth Lord is more approachable compared to the solemn bodhisattvas in other major temples and aligns more closely with the immediate desires of worshippers, that this small Temple of the Fifth Lord has, in the eyes of the faithful, almost become a symbol of answered prayers. Most visitors who come to Mount Wutai to burn incense do so mainly to visit the Temple of the Fifth Lord.

In the minds of the public, they may not understand Buddhist doctrines or even know about Manjushri Bodhisattva, but as soon as the Temple of the Fifth Lord is mentioned, it is widely renowned and has almost become a calling card of Mount Wutai.

Architectural Features: The Ten Thousand Buddha Pavilion covers an area of over 20,000 square meters. The entire courtyard consists of the Manjushri Hall, the Fifth Lord Hall, the opera stage, and monks’ quarters, arranged in a quadrangle layout.

The ancient temple is shaded by pine trees, and incense smoke wafts inside the halls. Observing its architectural layout reveals a very unique design: the main Manjushri Hall, which looks like a two-story building from the outside, faces west and is situated to the east. Commonly called the “Temple of the Fifth Lord,” the auxiliary hall faces south and is located to the north, with an opera stage directly to its south. According to historical records, the Ten Thousand Buddha Pavilion was first built in the 44th year of the Wanli reign during the Ming Dynasty. The oldest structure is the Manjushri Hall, built using a three-eave, four-projecting-corridor construction technique with a hip-and-gable roof. It houses ten thousand Buddha statues of the same size, hence the name Ten Thousand Buddha Pavilion.

The upper level enshrines the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva along with the father and son of the Min family, and a seven-thousand-jin bronze bell is suspended there. The lower level houses the Ming Dynasty sculptures of the Three Great Bodhisattvas: Manjushri, Samantabhadra, and Avalokiteshvara, which are vivid and lifelike in appearance.

Further Reading:

· Second Batch of Hubei Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units