The Chakravartin at Zhihua Temple

The Chakravartin is an octagonal rotating cabinet in a Buddhist temple that stores Buddhist scriptures. It symbolizes the constant rotation of the Dharma Wheel in Buddhism. The Chakravartin of Zhihua Temple is stored in the west side hall, the Zang Hall, which is also the origin of the name of this side hall. The revolving sutra library of Zhihua Temple is 4 meters high and octagonal in shape. Each side of the sutra library has 9 rows and 5 columns of drawers and stands in the center of the sutra hall. The surface of the eight circular columns of the Chakravartin are engraved with the six-syllable mantra of Guanyin and the eight treasures pattern from top to bottom. The drawer frames are engraved with Sanskrit mantras and lotus flowers. The red lacquer surface is decorated with intaglio gold-tracing techniques, which is extremely exquisite. The Chakravartin combines exquisite craftsmanship of carving and painting, and can be regarded as a treasure of Ming Dynasty Buddhist architectural art. Each drawer of the revolving library has text for searching. In ancient China, there is the Thousand Character Classic, which consists of one thousand non-repetitive Chinese characters from "天地玄黄" to "焉哉乎也". Most ancient scriptures were searched using the Thousand Character Classic. The Zhihua Temple's revolving sutra library starts from the character "天" (sky) in the upper right corner on the east side and ends at the character "洞" (hole) in the lower left corner on the northeast side, with a total of 639 characters, which can store 639 boxes of Buddhist scriptures. The Garuda, Dragon Girl, Whale carved on the top of the Zhihua Temple's Chakravartin, as well as the boy mount, Lion King, and Elephant King on the corner pillars together form the six holding utensils, which are the most common images in Tibetan Buddhist art, serving as the backlight for the relief sculpture of Sakyamuni on each drawer of the sutra kitchen. In addition to the six-grasp Dharma implements, the Zhihua Temple's Chakravartin also has Vajra and Bodhisattva decorations. Vairocana Buddha is placed on top of the Chakravartin, sitting upright on a Han-style lotus platform, making the "wisdom fist seal", with a high fleshy bun, broad shoulders and a broad face, and has the artistic characteristics of Ming Dynasty Yongle and Xuande court statues. The lotus throne has many layers of large and full petals, and is beautifully carved and painted. The white marble Sumeru pedestal of the Chakravartin is composed of exquisitely carved patterns, including, from the bottom to the top, auspicious scroll cloud patterns, precious pearls, scroll grass patterns, prone lotus, two dragons playing with pearls, upturned lotus, scroll grass patterns, and entwined lotus supporting eight treasures patterns. Among them, the entwined lotus supporting eight treasures pattern is a higher-level eight treasure pattern in the Ming Dynasty. There are relief carvings of Vajra warriors at the eight corners, with strong muscles and heroic postures. The layout and design of the chakravartin in the Tibetan hall and the mandala caisson above are ingenious, with exquisite carvings and paintings, demonstrating the superb craftsmanship of Ming Dynasty craftsmen. Address: No. 5, Lumi Cang Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing Opening hours: 9:00-17:00 (No entry after 16:30) Closed on Monday