Structure Type: Buddhist monastery 佛寺.
Location: Tigershead Ridge Village, Yangyuan County, Hebei Province 河北省陽原縣虎頭嶺(梁)村. The monastery is located away from the village, on a bluff overlooking the sweep of the Sanggan River 桑干河. The village is not walled, and the scattered houses here suggest to me that the settlement may actually antedate the monastery. According to the old man who keeps the keys, the name of the ridge comes from a geomantic tiger which is pinned down 鎮 under the monastery. The various spurs which drop down to the river are the tiger’s head, limbs, tail, and penis.
Period: 1822-6. A stele outside the monastery relates that the place was founded at this location in 1589, but later fell into disrepair. In 1822, a Chan master named Benli 本利禪師 arrived at the place, erected a platform, and began giving ordinations 立戒壇. Pious donors donated to have the monastery repaired, and “a spiritual realm was opened up in the region of Datong, where the thunder of the Dharma resounded” 雲間[ ]開靈境, 法雷響[ ]. This work was finished and the stele erected in 1826. The somewhat “tent-revival” nature of this event may account for the eccentric accoutrement of the temple.
Artist: Unknown. I can’t locate an artist on the stele; the name may be in the damaged lower part.
Mural Contents: The iconographic scheme of this temple hall is unique and I am not able to identify most of it. There are now three Buddhas enthroned in the hall, presumably the Buddhas of the Three Times 三世佛. The niche behind the central Buddha has a mandorla and images of trees and railings. The two niches to the left and right have images of attendant figures. Interestingly, these show esoteric-style multi-armed female figures. The two side walls show alternated male and female figures.
Most interestingly are two narrow strips where the side-walls abut the inner wall and the altar. On the right-hand side is a Daoist inner alchemy chart 內丹圖, which schematizes the body as a sort of hydraulic system involving pumps and arching flows of water. On the left-side is what appears to be a schematic map of Mount Sumeru 須彌山圖. Such Sumeru murals are common enough in Tibetan and Mongol monasteries, but I’ve never seen one in a Chinese mural. The apposition of these two images at the altar wall – the Daoist body with the Buddhist cosmos – is itself a fascinating iconographic suggestion.
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