Location info and some photos withheld. As of my last visit, this mural site is vulnerable to theft or destruction. I have withheld the location beneath the county level and any photographs (of steles, signs, scenery, etc.) that might identify the place. If you are an accredited scholar and you have a good reason to want to see this information, email me and we’ll talk about it.
Note: The image above is from Willem Grootaers, “Les temples villageois de la région au Sudest de Tat’ong (Chansi Nord), leurs inscriptions et leur histoire,” Folklore Studies, vol.4 (1945): figures inserted p.168-9. Grootaers does not give a precise location for this photo, and I’m not certain that it’s the same temple represented above; many of the villages in this area have quite similar complexes (Grootaers calls it a “type”), and several details of the temples do not match. Nevertheless, I’ve included this image because, in many ways, the central project of this site is to reconstruct the rural world that Grootaers saw, in all its strange beauty. The fact that so few of the buildings in his photos are still standing underlies the importance of doing so – we have, proverbially, lost more than we will ever know.
Another interesting example of a building that Grootaers photographed is the Sanlang Temple at Great Xin [Family] Village – although the temple interior is sadly gutted, the buildings, the steles, and even the house of the man who funded its creation are all intact.
Structure Type: Village Temple 村廟 and Opera Stage 戲台.
Location: Huairen County 懷仁縣. The temple complex is located just to the east of the old village.
Period: Undated. Seems late 17th or 18th century to me based on style.
Artist: Unknown.
Mural Contents: The murals are heavily damaged; they were plastered over during the Cultural Revolution, after which the plaster was partially scraped away to reveal the faded images beneath. Nevertheless, the images are still beautiful. The main wall of the temple shows the Mother of Waters 水母, along with her sons the Dragon Kings of the Five Seas 五海龍王 and the Master of Rain 雨師. The side walls show their procession out and back from the Crystal Palace 水晶宮, dispensing rain. The building is also notable for its beautiful and well-preserved ornamental stone-carvings.
The opera stage had front-stage murals at one point, but these are now damaged beyond recognition. The narrow backstage area has a beautiful image of a Qilin Gazing at the Moon 麒麟望月.
Full Gallery
