Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s3.t14: Yongning Temple

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s3.t14

Language: English

Yongning Temple

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Yongning Temple (Yongning Vihar) was the biggest temple in Luoyang during Northern Wei Dynasty. Today, only the historic site of the temple exists.

According to the Records of Qielan at Luoyang Volume I, Yongning Temple was originally built in the Xiping first year of the reign of Emperor Xiaoming, Northern Wei Dynasty (516 CE) and seemed very majestic and great with a huge nine-floor wooden pagoda rising directly into the sky. It could be seen even from a place 100 *li* away. On the north side of pagoda, there was a majestic palace hall, inside which a titanic golden Buddhism statue stood measuring about 6 m high. Moreover, there were also 10 golden statues as tall as an ordinary person and three Buddhism statues with real pearls dotted on it as well as five Buddhism statues knitted with gold wire and two Buddhism statues made out of jade, all boasting exquisite workmanship. Outside the palace hall, there were more than 1,000 rooms decorated with carved beams and painted rafters. All of Buddhism scriptures and statues introduced from foreign countries were preserved in this temple surrounded by tall walls and full of luxuriant. Well-spaced trees formed into an elegant and unforgettable landscape. On the top of the wall there was a jack rafter covered by tiles just as similar as the walls of the royal palace. The temple had four doors and among them the south gate was the front gate with a three-floor gate house. The gate houses for the east and west were both of two-floor buildings and north gate had no gate house. Between these four gates stood four human statues embodying the men of unusual strength and statues of four lions. At that time, Bodhidharma, an eminent monk from the Western Regions, came to China and when he saw the temple. He was deeply impressed by its majesty and exquisiteness and believed it the only one in the Jambu-dvipa. In February of Yongxi third year of the Northern Wei Dynasty (534 CE) the pagoda was damaged in the fire which lasted for three months. The same year Northern Wei Dynasty was toppled.

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*Fragment of a sculpted face, from Yongning Temple belonging to the period of Northern Wei Dynasty, preserved in the Luoyang Museum, Henan, China*

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In recent years, the Chinese archaeology world, after conducting a survey and excavation job on the Yongning Temple, discovered that the boundary walls of the temple were rectangular. It measured 305 m from north to south and 260 m from east to west. The base of the pagoda was located right in the middle of boundary walls which was square. On the north of the pagoda, there was a large relic of rammed earth, known as the base of the main palace hall measuring more than 60 m from east to west with a total area of over 1,300 sq m. The front gate, pagoda and main hall were all located on the verge of axle line and the pagoda was, of course, the most important building. The halls were behind the pagoda which was a typical layout for a Buddhist temple construction during early ancient China. There were a huge number of damaged Buddhist statues made out of clay and building materials such as stone statues, tiles and eaves tiles unearthed during the survey and excavation.

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(*Xue Keqiao*)