chan-金沙1005

at the edge of lixue pavilion, there are two ancient cedars, as the miracle landscape of the courtyard. on the east side of the paved path leading to lixue pavilion, erected is a stone tablet written with “lixue pavilion”. the back of the tablet was carved with the inscription of record of building buddha niche in the tenth year of ming jiajing.

lixue pavilion was originally named as “founder hall” or damo pavilion. lixue pavilion was initially the pavilions on the eastern and western sides of the founder hall. they were later on destroyed and the name was given to the founder hall. as per record, the current hall was built before or after the sixth year of ming zhengde (1511) and completed after the seventh year of zhengde (1512). it was renovated for many times in the dynasties of ming and qing. lixue pavilion is 11.37 meters wide and 7.39 meters deep, with a total height of 8.829 meters. it is the only single-roof architecture in the temple. it is small in size but appears to be nice and artistic. on the buddha stand in the open room placed is the word carving buddha niche, for the sitting statue of damo cast in braze in the period of ming zhengde. in the southeast corner of the hall is one iron bell cast in the 17th year of ming wanli (1589). the hall was renovated in 1983, while the steles outside have been moved to the stele corridor.