Structure Type: Buddhist Monastery 佛寺.
Location: Middle Avataṃsaka Monastery, Su Officials’ Fort Village, Yu County, Hebei Province 河北省蔚縣蘇官堡村中華嚴寺. The monastery is located north of the old fort; originally this must have been out in the open fields, but now the monastery is just at the edge of the expanding village. The “middle” in the name refers to the fact that this is one of three Avataṃsaka Monasteries; the “lower” monastery is to the north in Warm Springs Township 暖泉鎮, while the “upper” monastery is high up on the mountain slopes to the south. These three monasteries may once have formed a pilgrimage route, or a mother monastery and its branches; I’m not sure.
Period: 1916. A stele outside the Mahāvīra Hall relates the repainting of the monastery in this year.
Artist: Curiously, despite being specifically about the repainting 粧 of the monastery, the repair stele does not that I can see name an artist.
Mural Contents: The Hall to Kṣitigarbha 地藏殿 contains a statue of that bodhisattva. The two flanking walls display images of the Ten Courts of the Yama Kings 十殿閻王, ten fearsome bureaucrat-kings tasked with judging the souls of the dead. They are depicted surrounded by their fearsome psychopomps, plus binders, scrolls, rescripts, stamps, seals, brushes, and every other instrument of peasant papyrophobia. In the lower registers, the souls of evildoers are shown being tortured in hell. The two rear walls behind the statue of Kṣitigarbha contain panels showing the Arhats 羅漢, plus the Universal Gate Sūtra 普門品, in which Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin intercedes to save those who invoke her name from a series of evil fates. To my intense irritation, it seems that my camera-lens was slightly fogged up when I took these photos, possibly due to the intense cold at the time; the details all came out well, but the full-wall photos are all blurry.
The Mahāvīra Hall (i.e., the main prayer-hall) contains images showing the Life of Śākyamuni Buddha 佛專故事.
Other Notes: When I first visited this monastery in 2013, it was an half-abandoned wreck overgrown with weeds, inhabited only by an grouchy old caretaker who had little love for foreigners with cameras. Since then, the monastery has been taken over, repaired, and expanded by a Buddhist group based in Xuanhua city 宣化市. There is now a small group of monks and nuns, and the monastery hosts prayer-retreats from nearby large cities. Despite the sometimes intrusive renovations at the site, the murals have been carefully conserved, and the buildings are now being used for their intended purpose. The people are extremely friendly, and will generally provide delicious vegetarian food to the foreign researcher, who makes a point of stopping by whenever he’s passing that way. It’s very pleasant to see this loving renewal of a village religious site, when so many other old temples nearby are being destroyed.
Full Gallery
