Open Collections

Abandoned monastery near Ren Family Village (Renjiazhuang 任家莊)

From the Ground Up: Buddhism & East Asian Religions (FROGBEAR Project)

The monastery is located about 300 meters due north of Ren Family Village (Renjiazhuang cun 任家莊村). The complex sits just to the south-east of the empty mud walls of a fort on the bluffs overlooking a wide valley. Ren Family Village today has been entirely rebuilt; the settlement may originally have been located nearer to the monastery and fortress, but there was no-one at the site during visits in 2014 or 2018 who could confirm this, or say what the original name of the monastery was. No steles survive at the site, but one of the triangular panels beneath the rafters has the words ‘Republic of China’ (Zhonghua minguo 中華民國, 1912-49) written on it, which roughly matches the style of the wall paintings. The site is abandoned and derelict. In 2014, the murals in each hall were heavily eroded by the elements but still comparatively complete; unfortunately, photos taken at this time were of relatively low quality. By 2018, the paintings had been almost entirely stripped away by looters, leaving only a few of the triangular rafter panels in place. The monastery has three halls, arranged on a north-south axis. The southernmost entrance hall (i.e. the ‘mountain gate’ [shanmen 山門 or ‘Devarāja Hall’ [tianwang dian 天王殿]) seems to have been prepared for painting but never actually painted; black and white lines and panels had been delineated on the plaster but not filled in. The middle or ‘passing’ hall (guo dian 過殿) had unique images of the ‘Arhats Crossing the Sea’ (luohan du hai 羅漢渡海), showing the sixteen arhats floating across the ocean on various flora, with multiple images of Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音 emanating above. The northernmost hall (i.e. the Mahāvīra Treasure Hall [daxiong baodian 大雄寶殿]) had panel images showing scenes from the Life of the Buddha. The text was the same one commonly used in such murals throughout the region, derived from or at least closely related to the Ming-dynasty ‘Collected Deeds of the Origins and Miracles of the Śākya Clan’ (Shishi yuanliu yinghua shiji 釋氏源流應化事蹟). The cartouches read as follows. East wall: bottom row, right to left: ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐☐, 從園還城, 仙☐占相, 姨母養育; middle row, left to right: 習學書數, 講演武藝, 擲象成坑, 路☐☐人, 遇☐病臥, ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐☐; top row, right to left: 初啟出家, 夜半踰城, 落髮貿衣, 車匿辭還, 勸請回宮, ☐☐☐☐, 牧女獻糜. West wall: bottom row, left to right: ☐☐☐☐, 老乞遇佛, ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐人, ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐☐; middle row, right to left, ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐☐, 為母說法, 佛指移石, ☐☐☐☐; top row, left to right: 雙林入滅, 佛從棺起, 金棺自舉, 佛現雙足, 凡火不熱, ☐☐☐☐, ☐☐☐☐.

Hebei Sheng (China); Yu Xian (Hebei Sheng, China); 40.025265; 114.796459

chi

North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0413658

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