Huái'ān

Huai'an lies in the northern Hebei frontier country west of Xuanhua. Its Zhaohua Temple preserves a particularly tangible record of religious life under the Ming. Founded in 1392, the monastery subsequently fell into disrepair and was restored during the Zhengtong reign, between 1436 and 1443. Its surviving early Ming buildings include the entrance gate, Hall of the Heavenly Kings, Great Buddha Hall and Three Bodhisattvas Hall. The main hall has five bays across its front and a hip-and-gable roof. Inside, murals dated to 1562 fill approximately ninety-three square metres with forty-seven groups of figures. Their hundreds of deities and attendants give the frontier town a history more detailed than a succession of military jurisdictions: timber halls, Buddhist imagery and repeated repairs formed a lasting part of its built environment.