Fahai Temple, Buddhist temple in Shijingshan District, Beijing, China
Fahai Temple is a four-courtyard Buddhist temple built on four terraces rising with the slope between Mount Mantou to the east and Mount Panlong to the west. Its central axis runs from the Mountain Gate through the Heavenly King Hall, the Mahavira Hall, the Medicine Hall and the Sutra Library, with bell and drum towers flanking the gate. The compound measures about 72 metres east-west and 150 metres north-south.
The temple was built between 1439 and 1443 at the initiative of Li Tong, a court eunuch during the Ming Dynasty. It is one of the few surviving temple complexes from that era that still holds its original interior wall paintings largely intact.
The name Fahai means "Sea of the Dharma". The temple is known for its "five excellences": the Ming murals, a bronze bell, ancient white-bark pines, the mandala coffered ceilings, and the Four Cypresses One-Hole Bridge at the entrance. The bridge takes its name from four cypresses growing at its corners.
The temple stands within Fahai Temple Forest Park, about two kilometres north-east of Moshikou in Shijingshan District. To protect the Daxiong Baodian murals, entry to the closed hall requires a separate ticket, and visitors go in with a torch; phones and cameras must be left outside. The temple reopened on 30 July 2008 after major restoration.
The temple's murals cover 236.7 square metres across nine panels in the Mahavira Hall, painted in 1443 by fifteen artists, among them the court painters Wan Fuqing and Wang Shu and the folk painters Zhang Ping, Wang Yi and Gu Xing. The Water-Moon Guanyin figure stands over four metres tall, and the gauze robe she wears is built from many diamond flowers, each drawn with 48 silk threads.
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