Dule Temple (Jixian)

Major National Historical And Cultural Site; Liao Dynasty Temple Whose Guanyin Pavilion Of 984 Is Among The Oldest Multi Storey Timber Buildings In China · Tianjin, Tianjin

The Guanyin Pavilion at Dule Temple was rebuilt in 984, which makes it one of the oldest multi-storey timber buildings left in China, and everything about it follows from the statue inside. A clay Guanyin sixteen metres tall stands on the ground floor with ten small heads crowded on the crown of her head, and the pavilion was raised around her: two storeys as seen from the courtyard, three inside, with a hidden structural level and a well cut up through the floors so that from the top gallery you stand level with her face. The whole frame is mortise and tenon with twenty-four different types of bracket set, and it has ridden out something like thirty earthquakes in a thousand years, including the Tangshan disaster of 1976 that levelled a city a hundred kilometres away. Liang Sicheng surveyed it in 1932, his first great field study. Ming arhat murals were found under later plaster on the walls in 1972.

Wuding Street, Jizhou District, Tianjin, Tianjin, China

Open daily, generally around 8:00-17:30 in summer and roughly 8:30-17:00 in winter, with last entry before closing and a modest admission charge. THE GUANYIN PAVILION HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR CONSERVATION IN THE PAST while the compound remained open - confirm it is open before travelling, because the statue is the reason to come. The interior is deliberately dim with no bright lighting, so visit in daylight hours. Flash photography is prohibited inside and smoking is prohibited throughout the timber compound.

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