Píngwǔ

Pingwu lies among the mountains of northern Sichuan, where river valleys connect the Sichuan basin with communities farther into the highlands. Under the Ming, the Longzhou native office was held by local hereditary rulers of the Wang family. Wang Xi and his son Wang Jian supervised the building of Bao'en Temple at Pingwu in the fifteenth century. According to the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, work began in 1439, the principal buildings stood by 1446, and the whole complex was completed in 1460. The temple shows how a local ruling family could sponsor an ambitious Buddhist institution while operating within Ming imperial authority. Its halls and surviving objects preserve a record of religious art and building in this mountain region.