Dayun Cloister, Amitābha Hall  大雲院彌陀殿

Building Information

The Amitābha Hall 彌陀殿 (or Great Buddha Hall 大佛殿) of Dayunyuan was built in the fifth year of the Later Jin Tianfu reign period (後晉天福五年, 940 CE). It stands on a 1.3 m high brick podium. The hall has a front façade of 3 bays and depth of 6 rafters. Having a single eaves hip-gable roof, the six-rafter-deep hall uses a framework composed of a four-rafter beam facing an anterior rufu 乳栿 tie-beam with three columns. The column-tops hold five layer puzuo 鋪作 bracket sets with double huagong 華栱 bracket-arms and there is a single bracket set in the intercolumnar position. The central bay of the back cao 槽 inside the hall is supported by two columns and lack any column-top tie-beams. The roof frame is composed of an array of styles: up to 8 different styles of camel’s-hump braces of varying types. In addition, the interior roof frame still holds the remains of a portion of a Five Dynasties period polychrome painting, which is a rarity among the surviving premodern buildings. There is a bi-valve door on the central bay of both the front and back facades; as well as prism-lattice windows under the two side bays of the front facade. A 28.8-square meter mural, said to be the only mural extant from the Five Dynasties in all known Chinese temples, is found on the interior east wall, north wall, and screen wall. On the east wall is a transformation tableau of Vimalakīrti 維摩變相, and the back (north) wall features a transformation tableau Western Pure Land 西方淨土變相. The figures of the mural are vivid and animate.1