Note: So as not to over-load these image-galleries, I’ve put photos from other shrines at the same monastery on a separate page, accessed here.
Structure Type: Buddhist Monastery 佛寺.
Location: Xinglong Monastery, Zheng Family Rear Village, Jia County, Shaanxi Province 陝西省佳縣鄭家後溝興隆寺. The monastery is located just outside of the village, which was a warren of caves dug into the canyon wall, now abandoned.
Period: Late 18th to early 20th centuries. None of the steles I saw seemed to directly date these structures. The Zheng 鄭 brothers who run the site told me that there used to be a plaque in the Jade Emperor Pavilion that recorded the painting of the murals in the Jiaqing 嘉慶 reign (1796-1820). This seems a little early to me, but not impossible; I don’t really understand the chronology of styles in northern Shaanxi.
Artist: Unknown.
Mural Contents: The Pavilion of the Jade Emperor 玉皇閣 is the highest structure in the monastery, with a commanding view of the monastery, the village, and the canyon beyond. According to the Zheng brothers, the innermost deities are the Thirty Three Heavens 三十三天, while the side walls have the Twenty Eight Astral Mansions 二十八宿 and the Nine Celestial Bodies 九耀. On the outermost part of the mural are the Dragon Kings 龍王, who proceed out and back dispensing rain according to the Jade Emperor’s order. The statues were constructed by the Zheng brothers in the 1990s; I have the identities of the deities in my notes, but unfortunately I don’t have the notebook on me here. I like this shrine particularly because it gives a vivid sense of how these murals were once seen. Most shrines have been entirely denuded of their statues, leaving only the murals on the walls, exposed to the foreigner’s camera-flash. In a traditional shrine room, however, these murals were far from visible – instead, they were only a dimly perceived background behind the looming statues, a faint motion in the gloom, a curl of incense.
The shrines to Hayagrīva and the Goddesses are ugly but interesting. The Hayagrīva shrine show the deity processing out and back with his attendants the Ox King 牛王 and the King of Grass and Water 水草王. On the rear walls are images of horses and horse-keepers – here we truly see the tantric Hayagrīva become the Chinese ‘Horse King’ 馬王, lord of livestock. The shrine to the Goddesses has a theme that I’m calling the Hundred Games 百戲; I’m not sure what the indigenous name for it is. This is a type of panel series showing male children playing at various pursuits, flying kites, putting on dragon-dances, learning to read and draw, etc. This seems to be one of several standard Goddesses iconographies in northern Shaanxi (another example exists at White Cloud Mountain 白雲山, but I was not allowed to photograph within the shrine.)
Other Notes: There are a number of other small shrines scattered through the village, many of which have pre-Revolution murals. These include shrines to Lord Guan 關公, the Dragon Kings 龍王, Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音, the Black Dragon King 黑龍王, etc. None of them are particularly well-preserved or interesting, but they are nice attestations of particular iconographies in a north-Shaanxi context; you can scroll through all the photos I took here https://photos.app.goo.gl/f3f484K3TmspSwAE7.
Full Gallery (The Jade Emperor Pavilion)
Full Gallery (Various Shrines Within the Monastery)
