Famous Daming Temple

Daming Temple is located in Zhicheng Town, 6 km south of Jiyuan City, Henan Province, and is adjacent to Nigou River in the west. The history of Daming Temple can be traced back to the early Western Han Dynasty. Its predecessor was the incense burning courtyard for the sacrifice of the ancestors of the Marquis of Zhi. During the Jingyou period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1034–1038), it had developed considerably and was called Tonghui Zen Temple at that time. At the end of the Jin Dynasty, it was destroyed by war and became a ruin. In the 13th year of the Zhiyuan period of the Yuan Dynasty (1276), it was rebuilt over a period of 30 years and renamed to its current name. It was repaired and rebuilt many times in later generations. Daming Temple is one of the best-preserved ancient architectural complexes in Henan Province. It is built along the central axis and consists of three courtyards. It is square in shape and covers an area of 20,600 square meters. There are 13 ancient buildings with 41 rooms, including the mountain gate, the Middle Buddha Hall, the Rear Buddha Hall, the left and right side halls, and the monks' rooms. Among them, the main building, the Middle Buddha Hall, was built during the Zhiyuan period of the Yuan Dynasty (1264–1294). The hall is square, with three rooms, a single-eave hip roof, five sets of brackets, and a true beam. The interior of the hall is built with reduced columns, and the building is of high purity. It is one of the four existing single wooden structures of the Yuan Dynasty in Henan Province. The Rear Buddha Hall was rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty, with a single-eave gable roof. The murals in the hall are well preserved and brightly colored, which are valuable materials for studying the mural art of ancient buildings in the Central Plains. The temple also preserves more than ten steles from the Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, as well as a thousand-year-old sal tree with a circumference of 3.3 meters, lush branches and leaves, and a canopy-like shape. Jiyuan, Henan