Huayan Temple and the Nine Dragon Screen (Datong)

Liao And Jin Dynasty Temple Complex And The Largest Surviving Glazed Dragon Screen In China · Datong, Shanxi

Two survivors of Datong's time as a northern capital, standing a few streets apart inside the rebuilt old city. Huayan Temple was founded under the Liao dynasty, whose Khitan rulers faced their halls east toward the rising sun rather than south in the Chinese manner, and it keeps two extraordinary buildings: the Mahavira Hall of 1140, one of the largest single-storey timber halls to survive from any Chinese dynasty, its ceiling a coffered grid of painted panels above walls covered in Qing murals; and the smaller Bhagavan Sutra Repository of 1038, whose walls are lined with wooden sutra cabinets carved as miniature palaces linked by a flying bridge, and which holds a group of Liao clay bodhisattvas including one known as the Oriental Venus, caught smiling with palms pressed together. A short walk away, the Nine Dragon Screen was built in 1392 before the palace of a Ming prince: forty-five metres long and faced with glazed tiles, with nine dragons writhing through a sea of yellow, green and purple, it is the largest and oldest such screen in China.

Huayan Temple, Datong Ancient City, Pingcheng District, Datong, Shanxi, China

Huayan Temple about 8:30-17:30, closed Mondays; the Nine Dragon Screen about 8:00-18:00 (check).

Huayan Temple and the Nine Dragon Screen (Datong) on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos