Kaishan Temple, Buddhist temple in Xincheng Town, China
Kaishan Temple is a Buddhist temple in Xincheng Town, Hebei. Its Mahavira Hall, built in 1033 during the Liao dynasty, is five bays wide and three deep, measures 30.4 by 18.5 meters, and stands on a 1.11-meter stone platform with a 27.6 by 11.4-meter yuetai in front. The hall has only four interior columns, using reduced and shifted column techniques.
Founded in the Tang dynasty before Xincheng was established in 832, the temple stood in the town's northeast corner after its walls went up in 929. The main hall was built in 1033 under the Liao, as a date on an interior beam records. It became a Sun Yat-sen educational hall in 1928 and later served as a granary until 1991.
Locals long called the temple Dasi, "Big Temple", and a saying holds that the Big Buddha Temple came before Xincheng county town. The main hall's devotional image was probably Guanyin, flanked by four esoteric bodhisattvas with luohans along the sides. The temple is now a national key cultural relic site, listed in 1996.
The temple stands in the northeast corner of walled Xincheng, in Xincheng Town near Gaobeidian, Hebei. The site covers 9,500 square metres and holds the Mahavira Hall plus the Ming-Qing Tianwang and Jingang halls. In August 2023 floodwater submerged the temple; the water in the main hall was drained from 6 August.
The main hall's interior has only four golden columns: two central bays drop two pillars and the side bays shift their columns toward the neighbouring ones, widening the floor space. The 2001 excavation found 617 coins under a pillar, the latest a Zhihe yuanbao minted 1054–1055, dating the timber frame.
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