Note: So as not to over-load these image-galleries, I’ve put photos from other shrines at the same village on a separate page, accessed here.
Structure Type: Village Temple 村廟.
Location: Guang’en Fort Village, Zhuolu County, Hebei Province 河北省涿鹿縣廣恩屯村. The temple sits at the south end of the main axial line of the old village fort. At present the village has been shifted out of the fort and the space is now an overgrown ruin of weeds; the little Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin temple has become the nucleus of a newer Buddhist monastery, which houses one monk. Originally, however, this little temple should have looked north up the narrow axial street of the village towards the tower on the northern wall. Note that another temple with murals (possibly from the same period?) exists within the village.
Period: 1638 [?]. There is a stele with this date on the temple portico. The inscription is mostly a list of names of donors, but at the end it gives the names of five craftsmen 匠, implying that this was a fairly major renovation. The style (particularly the palette of dark blues with strong reds and golds) also points to the Ming period.
Artist: The crucial bit of the stele that identifies the different craftsmen is effaced, but I think it should be the two craftsmen named Zhu Chengzhi 朱承志 and 郝應[ ] Hao Ying[ ].
Mural Contents: The side-wall murals consists of a panel series depicting the Fifty Three Stations of Sudhana 善財童子五十三參, from the Gaṇḍhavyūha section of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra 華嚴經入佛界品. Sudhana is the little boy wearing red 紅孩兒 in the images. The main wall has an image of Guanyin flanked by protector deities.
Other Notes: This type of Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin temple which faces north along the axial road of a temple or walled village is called a “Reverse-Facing Guanyin” 倒座觀音. I’ve seen a number of amusing translations of this term by people who are unfamiliar with the area (“Goddess of Mercy lying on the ground”), so it seems worthwhile to reiterate what it means, and to point to this as an excellent and early surviving example.
The room is very dark, the murals are heavily damaged, the wall surface is slightly reflective, and the one monk has installed little animatronic flowers which chant “A-mi-tuo-fo” (Amitabha Buddha) repeatedly and then suffer loud glitches, all of which make it difficult to obtain good images in the narrow room.
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