The Hall of Four Heavenly Kings or Four Heavenly Kings Hall (), referred to as Hall of Heavenly Kings, is the first important hall inside a

shanmen The Shanmen (), also known as the Gate of Three Liberations, is the most important gate of a Chinese Chan Buddhist temple. Etymology The origins of the name "sanmen" are debated. One theory is that "''Shanmen''" takes its literal meaning of "Mo ...

(mount gate) in

Chinese Buddhist Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a Chinese form of Mahayana Buddhism which has shaped Chinese culture in a wide variety of areas including art, politics, literature, philosophy, ...

temples and is named due to the

Four Heavenly Kings The Four Heavenly Kings are four Buddhist gods, each of whom is believed to watch over one cardinal direction of the world. In Chinese mythology, they are known collectively as the "Fēng Tiáo Yǔ Shùn" () or "Sìdà Tiānwáng" (). In the ...

statues enshrined in the hall.

Maitreya Maitreya (Sanskrit: ) or Metteyya (Pali: ), also Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha, is regarded as the future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. As the 5th and final Buddha of the current kalpa, Maitreya's teachings will be aimed a ...

Buddha is enshrined in the Hall of Heavenly King and at the back of his statue is a statue of Skanda Bodhisattva facing the northern

Mahavira Hall A Mahavira Hall, usually simply known as a Main Hall, is the main hall or building in a traditional Chinese Buddhist temple, enshrining representations of Gautama Buddha and various other buddhas and bodhisattvas. It is encountered throughou ...

. In Buddhism, the Maitreya Buddha, also the future Buddha is

Sakyamuni Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

's successor. In the history of Chinese Buddhism, Maitreya Buddha has the handsome image in which he wears a coronet on his head and yingluo () on his body and his hands pose in mudras. According to ' (; ''Sung kao-seng chuan''), in the Later Liang Dynasty (907-923), there was a fat and big-stomached monk named "Qici" () in

Fenghua Fenghua (; ) is a district of the city of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. The district and its administrative hinterlands has a population of over 480,000. Fenghua is most famous for being the hometown of former Presidents Chiang Kai-shek an ...

of Mingzhou (now

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

). Carrying a sack on his shoulder, he always begged in the markets and streets, laughing. So local people called him "The Sack Monk" (). When he reached his

Parinirvana In Buddhism, ''parinirvana'' ( Sanskrit: '; Pali: ') is commonly used to refer to nirvana-after-death, which occurs upon the death of someone who has attained ''nirvana'' during their lifetime. It implies a release from '' '', karma and rebirth ...

, he left a Buddhist

Gatha ''Gāthā'' is a Sanskrit term for 'song' or 'verse', especially referring to any poetic metre which is used in legends, and is not part of the Vedas but peculiar to either Epic Sanskrit or to Prakrit. The word is originally derived from the S ...

: "Maitreya, the true Maitreya, has thousands of hundreds of millions of manifestations, often instructing people of their time, even when they themselves do not recognize him." () So he was seen as the manifestation of Maitreya Buddha. Since then, in Chinese Buddhist temples, Maitreya statues were shaped into a big fat monk's image with a big head and ears, laughing with his upper body exposed and cross-legged. The Skanda Bodhisattva behind him is the Dharmapalass of Buddhist temples. As with Maitreya Buddha, the Skanda Bodhisattva's image has changed into that of a handsome ancient Chinese general who wore armors, and held a

vajra The Vajra () is a legendary and ritual weapon, symbolising the properties of a diamond (indestructibility) and a thunderbolt (irresistible force). The vajra is a type of club with a ribbed spherical head. The ribs may meet in a ball-shap ...

in hand.

' statues are enshrined in the left and right side of the Four Heavenly Kings Hall. There are the eastern

Dhṛtarāṣṭra Dhṛtarāṣṭra (Sanskrit; Pali: ''Dhataraṭṭha'') is a major deity in Buddhism and one of the Four Heavenly Kings. His name means "Upholder of the Nation." Names The name ''Dhṛtarāṣṭra'' is a Sanskrit compound of the words ''dhṛ ...

(; Dhṛtarāṣṭra wears white clothes and armor and has a

pipa The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ran ...

, a Chinese plucked string musical instrument, in his hand), the southern Virūḍhaka (; Virūḍhaka wears blue clothes with a

sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

in his hand), the western

Virūpākṣa Virūpākṣa (Sanskrit; Pali: Virūpakkha; traditional Chinese: 廣目天王; simplified Chinese: 广目天王; pinyin: ''Guǎngmù Tiānwáng''; Japanese: 広目天 ''Kōmokuten'') is a major deity in Buddhism. He is one of the Four Heavenly ...

(; Virūpākṣa wears red clothes with a

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted a ...

or a

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more ...

wrapped around his arm), and the northern

Vaiśravaṇa (Sanskrit: वैश्रवण) or (Pali; , , ja, 毘沙門天, Bishamonten, ko, 비사문천, Bisamuncheon, vi, Đa Văn Thiên Vương), is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and is considered an important figure in Buddhism. Names The n ...

(; Vaiśravaṇa wears green clothes with a precious

umbrella An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally use ...

in his right hand and a silver sacred

mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

in his left hand). The Four Heavenly Kings are said to live in

Mount Meru Mount Meru (Sanskrit/Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritu ...

and their task is to protect the world in their direction respectively.

References

External links

{{Buddhist temples in China Buddhist architecture Chinese Buddhist architecture Four Heavenly Kings

References

Further reading

External links