Main Hall of Nanchan Temple

         Chinese temple  is a prayer hall that has been preserved in the temple

          The Main Hall of the Nanchan Temple is located at the Lijia Village, 22 km to the

southwest of Wutai County of Shanxi Province.

        The Nanchan Temple faces south. The main structures are the temple gate, the Dragon

God Hall, the Buddha Hall, and the Big Buddha Hall, which enclose a courtyard, as well as

small stone pagodas, and stone lions, etc. The time of its establishment is unknown.

        The platform in front of the Main Hall of the Nanchan Temple is very spacious. Under the

beam of the hall there is an epitaph that says that the temple was built in 782. It is the oldest

wood structure built in the Tang Dynasty (618-917). The hall is three-bay in both width and length.

The planar shape is near square. The layout of the structure is in symmetry. It is a typical structure

style of the Tang Dynasty.

       There is a big Buddha altar, 8.4 meters in length and 6.3 meters in width, in the Main Hall of the

Nanchan Temple. Seventeen multicolor statues of the Tang Dynasty besprinkle the altar, and the main

statue of them is Sakyamuni sitting cross-legged in Sumeru. The others line in both sides. In spite of

repairs and repainting in the following dynasties, the statues still retain the style and features of Tang statues.