The
Mi-le-fo and his Guardians greet you;
Qie Lan and Da-Mo in side halls |
This is the third
level of the temple.
The Heavenly Kings Hall is
commonly the first hall encountered inside the gate of a Chinese
temple.
Seated at the center of the Hall
is the Happy Buddha, or Mi-le-fo. He is surrounded by
the Four Heavenly Kings within the hall. Here also, as is
often the case, the Back Door of the Hall opens to a figure of Wei Tuo,
Mi-le-fo's "bodyguard." (Because Mi-le-fo was so
generous, he was often duped by con-men, putting his temple's
finances in jeopardy. Wei Tuo came to protect Mi-le-fo and
the temple from losing everything!)
On the left of this hall is a
small hall dedicated to Qie Lan, more familiar as Guan Gong or
Guan Di, from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In
Buddhism, he is a protector of temples.
On the right is another small
hall dedicated to Zu Shi; it took me awhile to discover that this
is Da Mo, or Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch of Chan (Zen)
in China.
On the next (fourth) level is a
hall whose use I have not determined, perhaps a dining hall for
devotees, or a classroom building. In any case, it does not
seem to be a place of worship.
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