Note: So as not to over-load these image-galleries, I’ve put photos from other shrines at the same temple complex on a separate page, accessed here.
Structure Type: Village Temple 村廟. This is a massive temple complex in the northern part of the old fortified town, containing within it a number of separate shrines. A very similar complex exists in the neighboring Huangfu Town 黃甫鎮, the next in the line of garrison forts strung out along the Great Walls here. The specific structure which houses these murals is an unusual two-story building, with the lower story consisting of an arched yaodong 窯洞 style stone barrel-vault room, and the second story a timber construction with a balcony looking out over the courtyard.
Location: Hemp Garrison, Fugu County, Shaanxi Province 陝西省府谷縣麻鎮.
Period: 1788-1802. The exact sequence of repairs and repaintings isn’t 100% clear to me, but it should be around this time. A heavily damaged stele exists recording repairs to these temples around 1788. Two plaques hang on the roof-boards of the temples to the Three Officials and to Lord Guan, recording the “raising of the beams” 扶樑 by different donors in 1788 and 1802, respectively. Neither of these (nor the stele) give information about the murals. The temples certainly were not built at this time, because another stele records land-grants to the Lord Guan Temple in 1770; in all probability the temples have been there since the creation of these garrisons in the Ming. The murals of the Three Officials and Avalokiteśvara are grouped together in this gallery because they are in the same structure and clearly in the same hand. I’m less sure of the shrine to Kṣitigarbha which occupies the lower floor of the same building, which may or may not be by the same artist.
Artist: Unknown. I haven’t located an artist listed in the steles.
Mural Contents: I’m uncertain about the original purpose of this building and the identities of the shrines within it; the present deities enshrined in the halls don’t match the historical murals. The ground floor of the building consists of an arched vault which holds a shrine to Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha 地藏王菩薩 and the Ten Yama Kings 十殿閻王. I have no idea if this was the original use of this room; the murals on the walls are simple paintings of ornamental screens, and could in principal serve as the background for statues of any deity.
The upper story contains shrines to Confucius 孔子, Kṣitigarbha 地藏, and the Three Officials 三官. This doesn’t seem to have been the original use of this space; one wall contains images of the Three Officials in procession, but the other contains images of the Arhats 羅漢 and the Universal Gate Sūtra 普門品經, an iconography more commonly associated with Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音.
Full Gallery
