May 20 (Lunar calendar: April 2), 2023 Saturday | Dawnxisoul393art
Part 1: Our general impression of "Chi Lin Nunnery“
It was a beautiful day when we visited the "Chi Lin Nunnery" in Diamond Hill, Hong Kong to worship the Bodhisattva, and visited the "Retrospective Exhibition of Buddhist Color Sculptures in Shanxi" for sketching and painting. Chi Lin Nunnery covers an area of more than 30000 square meters, sitting north to south, back to the mountain, and facing the sea. The design of the temple is based on the Western Pure Land painted in cave 172 of Dunhuang murals and the existing Tang-style temple buildings in China and Japan. It is an elaborate masterpiece of designers in the mainland, Hong Kong and Japan. Chi Lin Nunnery is a monastic female nun temple. Any female nun who devotes herself to becoming a monk can hang a list here and settle down.
Chi Lin Nunnery has a collection of more than 40000 books on Buddhism, philosophy, architecture, and art, which can be consulted by the public and provide advisory services. Established by Venerable Vikan in 1934, Chi Lin Nunnery was completely rebuilt in 1989 in response to the changing needs of the social environment, and the Chi Lin Nunnery was rebuilt and opened in January 1998. This temple complex, which imitates the all-wood construction of the Tang Dynasty, exhibits magnificent and magnificent ancient architectural art and has become a pro-focal point for Buddhist rituals, cultural promotion, and tourism. The architecture of Chi Lin Nunnery was in the form of a quadrangle, built along the mountain. The mountain gate was located in the south, with magnificent momentum.
There was a backtracking landscape garden in the east, with winding paths. There was a Tang-style landscape garden in the west, full of Zen flavor. The first entrance to the mountain gate was four lotus pools, which were full of lotus flowers, indicating the pure land on earth. Passing through the heavenly king hall (containing the heavenly crown Maitreya Buddha, Wei Tuo, and the four heavenly kings) and the Bell and Drum Tower on its left and right, it was the central point of the whole nunnery. The majestic and powerful Mahavira hall was dedicated to Sakyamuni Buddha, Manjusri Bodhisattva, Puxian Bodhisattva, Kanye venerable, and Ananda venerable.
On both sides, Guanyin hall and pharmacist hall was equipped to make the main hall feel towering. Enter the Sutra Pavilion and Dharma hall containing a large number of precious Buddhist relics. A seven-story ten thousand Buddha pagoda stands high in the northeast of the nunnery. The whole building complex was evenly distributed according to the central axis, completely in accordance with the architectural style of the Tang Dynasty. The design was based on the Sutra of the Western Pure Land painted in cave 172 of the Dunhuang wall book and the existing temple buildings of the Tang Dynasty in China and Japan. Chi Lin Nunnery showed the spirit of mutual aid between virtual and real and the unity of heaven and man in ancient architectural art. It was the result of the painstaking efforts of design experts in the mainland, Hong Kong and Japan.
This nunnery was a wood structure imitation Tang Buddhist temple building, which integrated the essence of classical architectural art and had become a new highlight of Buddhist temple architecture in Hong Kong. The whole nunnery was built according to the mountain trend, with the mountain gate on the south side, which was imposing and open, a backward landscape garden scene on the east side, which was curved and pass through, and a Tang-style dead wood and water garden on the west side, which was full of Zen flavor. The first entrance is four lotus ponds, a metaphor for the nunnery's pure and untainted land. The bell and drum towers were on the left and right sides, and the heavenly king hall was in the middle. The heavenly crown Maitreya Buddha, Weituo, and the four heavenly kings were enshrined in the hall.
The Mahavira Hall was solemn and magnificent. It was dedicated to Sakyamuni Buddha, Manjusri Bodhisattva, Puxian Bodhisattva, Kaya venerable, and Ananda venerable. It was equipped with Guanyin hall and pharmacist hall on both sides. The nunnery had a sutra Pavilion and a Dharma hall. On the highland in the northeast of the nunnery stood a seven-story ten thousand Buddha pagoda. When we entered the nunnery, especially near the main hall, we had a sense of leisure, comfort, and tranquility. Surrounded by all wooden buildings, symmetrical design, and corridors, we could better understand the wisdom of the ancients. Looking only at the appearance of the nunnery, the building had a majestic beauty.
Part 2: The interior of "Chi Lin Nunnery" and Buddhism in Shanxi
The upper cover of the whole building complex was composed of tiles and wood without a nail. The nunnery had no wooden columns and beams. It was seen in logs, which made people feel like going back to the Tang Dynasty thousands of years ago. Went to the main hall, because the hall column was made of yellow cypress, which sent outbursts of faint fragrance. What's more, the wooden column in the hall had cracks. The original wooden column had a history of 100 years. When it was cut down, it was placed in the sea for three years to release water. It was dried in shade for half a year, leaving only 2% of the water in the wood. The cracks were left as wooden columns to release the remaining water.
Therefore, the wooden columns know how to breathe and had life. The entire building was completely designed in the Tang style, with the gentle roof slope of Tang-style architecture dominating. Standing close to the front of the hall, we could see that the roof was buckled out, also highlighting the unique shape and role of the arch art, the arch mainly moved the gravity of the roof to the pillars in the hall to stabilise the pillar support force, the most important was the corner arch, made of 108 pieces of wood. The wooden windows in the whole nunnery were also of unique design. The wooden strips in the windows were placed in a rhombic shape. It was reported that they could also block the entry of rainwater without damaging the cool wind.
The layout of the hall was hierarchical, built according to the terrain, and the main and single buildings were mainly distributed along the central axis. The main halls were located on the north-south central axis, and there were auxiliary halls on the east and west sides. In addition, there were corridors around, which were leisurely and comfortable. The whole building complex was symmetrical and balanced. Not only the nunnery was designed in this way, but also the surrounding gardens, bonsai Trees were also such designs. Many of the trees were hundreds of years old, two Lohan pines were more than 2,000 years old, and other trees, large and small, had different and interesting postures.
The "Shanxi Buddhist Painted Sculptures Photography Exhibition", co-organized by Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Yuan Pond, was on display at Nan Lian Yuan Pond's Xiang Hai Heen, aiming to give us a closer look at the 15 painted sculptures in the many ancient monasteries in Shanxi Province, far northwest of the mainland, through photography. As a Sino foreign cultural and art exchange centre, Hong Kong is a pair of eyes and a window. Holding exhibitions can enable more Hong Kong people to understand the traditional culture. The high-quality photographs on display were all taken in the early 1980s by Chi Lin Nunnery in an effort to promote the artistic heritage of Buddhist sculpture by selecting 15 of the best from the many ancient monasteries throughout Shanxi. These outstanding Buddhist sculptures were exhibited in a traveling exhibition in Hong Kong and were also invited to be exhibited overseas.
This time it was presented again in a brand new hall, allowing us to feel the strong vitality of traditional art. Buddhism has been introduced to China more than two thousand years, and there were once majestic ancient temples and famous temples all over the world, with countless beautiful and superb Buddha statues. However, due to the ravages of natural and man-made disasters and the erosion of long years, very few of them remain today, and most of them are lost and hard to find. As art of religious sculpture, the exquisiteness of Buddhist painted sculptures in Shanxi is unparalleled. They are cultural treasures created by many nameless predecessors thousands of years ago and are priceless treasures left by history to future generations.
The colour sculptures from 30 years ago are different from today, and many of them have been damaged to different degrees by the erosion of age, both in colour and appearance, and the photography works are exhibited to pass on the culture and spirit. All sentient beings have Buddha-nature, but in the mortal world, we are often involuntary and go with the flow, always failing to do things, and even if we lose our way, we cannot meditate and repent. We can't always be running, we have to stop when it's time to stop, our mind has to be quiet, think about it quietly, think clearly before moving forward.
Original by dawnxisoul393
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