Temple of Magnificent Pavilion is located in the mountainside of West Mountain in Kunming, Yunnan Province. When you climb on Huating Mountain, you can see bamboo in uniform rows and pine tree shade along the passageway. In the immense forest, a pavilion decorated with china blue hides among pine and cypress, which is the door of Temple of Magnificent Pavilion–Bell Tower. Tourists can hear sharp and clear bell tone resound in the mountain.
The name of Magnificent Pavilion can date from the Dali Kingdom. It was said that a high official Gao Zhisheng built a villa here in 1063, then his posterity Gao Xian started to call it “Magnificent Pavilion”. From then on, the pavilion became a place for Gao’s family to play in and have a banquet.
Hall building in Temple of Magnificent Pavilion are divided into two stories. The building is awe-inspiring in size and design, compact in layout; on the left are reclined Buddha and Taihua Mountaintop, on the right is Yu’an and in the front is the Dian Lake. When look as far as you can in front of the temple, you can see the surrounding mountains. When the sky is blue, the lake seems to melt into the sky. The watery blue reaching far beyond the horizon casts light on the Group Mountains and makes them look much more beautiful.
Temple of Magnificent Pavilion sits on the west and faces the east, quite different from most temples in mainland, which sit on the north and face the south. The temple covers an area of 18 mu (12,000 square meters) and appears as rectangle. It is a symmetrical and enclosed temple, which is deeply affected by Confucianism. The stereo buildings were arranged along the axis wire, such as the free life pond, Hall of Heavenly King, Eight Merits Pond, the Great Buddha’s Hall and depositary of Buddhist sutra. There are scripture hall, ancestor’s hall, abbot’s quarters, monk’s hall, visitor’s hall, bath house, and storehouse along the lateral axis. All the buildings take the Great Buddha’s Hall as the center, look like a myriad of stars surround the moon.
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