Tianning Temple

Tianning Temple

Tianning Temple was first built in the Zhenguan and Yonghui years of the Tang Dynasty (627-655 AD).

Tianning Temple, one of the key Buddhist temples in China, is a cultural relic protection unit in Jiangsu Province, known as the first jungle in Southeast China.

Tianning Temple, together with Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, Gaomin temple in Yangzhou and Tiantong temple in Ningbo, is known as the four jungles of Chinese Zen.

Historical origin

Tianning pagoda was built in April 2002 and opened on April 30, 2007. With a total construction area of 27000 square meters and a height of 153.79 meters, the pagoda is the highest among more than 4000 pagodas in China. From the underground palace on the ground floor to the bell tower on the top floor, the whole pagoda takes Buddhist culture as the main line, and takes Dongyang wood carving, Yangzhou lacquerware, Changzhou random needle embroidery, Hui'an stone carving and other hand-made arts as the means of expression, subtly interpreting many doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism.

Layout structure

The completion of the pagoda echoes with the Great Buddha of Yungang in the north, Longmen in the Central Plains, Leshan in the west, Lingshan in the East and the temple of heaven in Hong Kong in the south, becoming the heart of the five Buddhas.

Tianning pagoda adopts the style of Tang and song ancient pagodas in appearance: octagonal cornice, dignified shape, simple and rough, grand momentum; the decoration of the pagoda also follows the style of Tang and song architecture along Tianning Temple: luxurious but not complicated, simple and grand, although there is no beauty of carved beams and painted buildings, it has the charm of ancient color and fragrance, showing a solemn atmosphere. Since the foundation was laid in April 2002, 6500 tons of steel has been used to support the tower framework. The steel structure of the tower was capped at the end of 2003. Through precision measurement, the perpendicularity error between the top and the bottom is less than 1 cm. With such precision, Tianning pagoda won the first award: the gold award issued by the national steel structure association in 2004.

Nanmu pillar

The pillars, railings, suspended ceiling, stairs, handrails and thresholds of Tianning pagoda are all made of Phoebe, and the consumption has reached 5000 cubic meters. These Phoebe trees come from the deep forests of Myanmar and Papua New Guinea. They are raw materials with a diameter of 1m and a length of 9m and 6m respectively.

Among them, there are 60 to 72 pillars in each layer, and more than 1000 pillars in 13 layers. On the first floor, the cornice extending more than 8 meters outside the tower is made of Phoebe. On this floor alone, the timber of Phoebe reaches 1300 cubic meters.

The scale

Among the 1000 tons of copper ornaments carried by Tianning pagoda, the most eye-catching one is the diamond throne type Tasha at the top of the pagoda.

The tower brake consists of lotus stand, elephant wheel, drum seat, flame plate, etc. it is cast from 75 tons of brass. Considering the difficulty of installation, the whole tower brake is cast into 5 sections and then connected one by one. The excellent process of casting and splicing makes the whole tower brake integrated. On the eaves of the pagodas, there are 50000 pieces of bronze inscription tiles, with strip-shaped bronze bottom tiles at the bottom.

The inscriptions on the tiles were inspired by the inscriptions on ancient bronzes. This innovative design made the bronze inscription tiles obtain the national patent. In addition, the rafters and watchboards of the roof, and the brackets on the eaves are all decorated with copper. The brackets that are no longer load-bearing are covered with copper, while the shapes and sizes of the brackets and brackets are completely in accordance with the ancient architectural rules. Among the existing pagodas in China, the most famous one is the pagoda of Shaolin Temple. The newly built Tianning pagoda will be surrounded by a forest of 1000 white and Han jade pagodas on the 6-layer fence at the base of the pagoda, forming a grand gathering with Tianning pagoda. Each pagoda is 65cm high, and its base is 1.75m high. It is made of "Oriental White" jade from Ya'an, Sichuan Province, by folk artists from Huian, Fujian Province and Quyang, Hebei Province. Among the 1000 jade pagodas, there is a forest of Buddhist scriptures on the side of 1000 pieces of jade. The scriptures on the forest will be written by 500 eminent monks at home and abroad. So far, more than 200 Buddhist scriptures have been collected.

At the top of the 13th floor of the pagoda, a 15 ton clock is suspended. The bell should be surrounded by several people. The wall of the bell is as thick as a brick, and the pillar of the bell is thicker than the mouth of the bowl. The bell is far away, and the gospel is wide.

Ancient and modern status

Although the big bell is not the largest, its height of 118 meters is enough to make it the tallest. "Gaozhong No.1" and "guotaiminan" inscribed by abbot Songchun of Tianning Temple are located on the north and south walls respectively. The other six walls are a complete volume of Vajra Sutra, with 8000 8 cm square characters engraved on the thousand year old camphor wood.

On the inner walls of the four sides of the first high bell are four Yangzhou lacquer paintings with exquisite carving, full gold, magnificence and solemnity. These four large-scale lacquer murals, such as Huayan Dafa and fahua miaodan, are the works of Jiangsu arts and crafts celebrities LV Yonglin and Yang Zhongbao. They are also the first time that Yangzhou lacquer painting has entered Buddhism.

On the 13th floor of the pagoda, the grand scene of Buddha Sakyamuni's preaching and the gathering of all kinds of Buddhists and immortals in Lingshan mountain is displayed. The interpretation of this scene is the five Buddhas and the four walls. The five Buddhas are worshipped in five directions, East, West, North and south. In the center is a natural crystal Buddha which can be called the treasure of the pagoda. This transparent and natural statue of Sakyamuni originated in India in the 16th century and was exiled in Europe in the last century. In 2003, Gao Peizhi, an Aihua personage, welcomed him back to China and donated him to Tianning pagoda. The other Sifang Jade Buddha will be carved with white, ink, blue and red jade from Hetian jade and Kunlun jade in Xinjiang.

Buddhist significance

The five Buddhas show the scene of Buddha preaching, while the four walls show the grand momentum of Ten Thousand Buddhas' pilgrimage. Each wall is 6 meters long and 2.4 meters high. The carving process is the best Dongyang wood carving in China. More than ten masters of Dongyang folk carving will spend eight months to show 500-600 figures and scenes with different expressions on teak wood with the technology of Yang carving protruding more than 10 cm.

Stepping into Tianning pagoda base square, looking up, you can see the large plaque of "Dragon City elephant religion" hanging between the first and second floors of the pagoda. The plaque is 5 meters long and 2 meters high. At the four corners of the tower base, the four heavenly kings, 5.3 meters high and made of all copper, are tall, dignified and majestic, holding four "magic weapons" of sword, lute, umbrella and dragon respectively, implying the prayer for "good weather". On both sides of each statue, there are 8 bronze elephants. Each elephant is 3.2 meters high and 5 meters long. Another two Jiulong pillars, 19.8 meters high and 3 meters in diameter, stand on both sides of the pagoda. They are carved from granite and weigh more than 200 tons. The square where the dragon and the elephant come together also reflects the theory of "Dragon City elephant education". In addition, there are two incense burners 5 meters long, 1.8 meters wide and 2.8 meters high on the square, which are the largest incense burners in China so far.

Main building

The four characters "Dragon City elephant religion" on the screen wall opposite the gate were inscribed by Qianlong himself when he came to Tianning Temple for the third time. "Longcheng" is another name for Changzhou, "Xiangjiao" refers to Buddhism. After Sakyamuni ascended to heaven, in order to remember the Buddha and spread Buddhism, his disciples carved a statue of Sakyamuni on wood to educate monks and good men and women with the image of Buddha.

Emperor Qianlong affirmed the strict laws and regulations of Tianning Temple, which is a famous Buddhist temple in the southeast coast. The inscription contains the meaning of praising and rewarding, praising Tianning Temple as a pure land of Changzhou.

When we step into the mountain gate, the first one that catches our eyes is the Avalokitesvara standing on the lotus seat. It is 4 meters high, all carved with camphor wood and pasted with gold foil. This kind of layout is rare in other temples. Why do you want to build this "four side Avalokitesvara" in the Mountain Gate hall? Because Guanyin treats all people equally, regardless of the noble and the humble, and because of her great compassion, she is very popular. She is consecrated here, so that people can see him from the front, back, left and right, so that they can have joy and pray for good luck.

Now we have come to the "Heavenly King's hall". Such a large Heavenly King's hall is one of the few in the country. It is more than 23 meters high and covers an area of 790 square meters. Under the eaves of the huge plaque "tianwangdian" three glittering characters, is the former vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, former chairman of the Chinese Buddhist Association, the famous calligrapher Zhao Puchu wrote. On the top is the brick carving of "no two methods", written by Feng Guifen, a pioneer of Westernization school in the late Qing Dynasty and Wu County calligrapher. Entering the temple of the heavenly king, the statue of Maitreya is in front of us. His chest is bare and his belly is open. His smiling face makes us feel kind and joyful. Look at the Bodhisattva Wei Tuo at the back of the hall. The weapon in his hand is called subduing magic pestle, also called Treasure pestle. Facing the main hall, he is the gatekeeper of the temple. The four huge colored statues on both sides of the hall are the four heavenly kings who protect the Dharma, commonly known as the four vajras. The four statues of heavenly kings here are famous for their height and majesty. Each statue is 7.8 meters high, and the Shentai is 9.1 meters high, which is rare among similar statues in temples in China.

Luohan brick, through the "field" shaped courtyard, now we come to the main hall. Look at the walls on both sides. There are 518 images of arhat brick carvings. It was first carved in the third year of Jiaqing Dynasty (1798). The 500 Luo we saw in Luohan hall just now

Chinese PinYin : Tian Ning Si