Temple of Solitary Joy

Temple of Solitary Joy, located at inside west city gate of Ji County, Tianjin City, is known for its refined architecture skill in Channel's ancient buildings and has got the reputation of Six Best, namely, the earliest Dingshan Gate (Gate of Withstanding Hill) of the ground hall preserved now; the earliest Chiwei object on the Hill Gate preserved now; the earliest plane distribution which took pavilion as the center on the architecture plane. The Temple of Solitary Joy has stood unscathed after thousand years of rain, snow, wind and frost and 28 big attacks, hence the most durable ancient Monastery of thousand years.

The very sight in the Avalokitesvara Pavilion catches visitors eyes is a huge standing Avalokitesvara Statue, which is the biggest clay sculptured statue of Avalokiteavara in China. Two statues of attendant Bodhisattvas under the knee of Avalokitesvara are also 3m in height. On the crown of the head of Avalokitesvara, there are 10 small Avalokitesvare's heads; hence it is called 11 faces Avalokitesvara. The upper storey of the Avalokitesvara Pavilion is in a form of six corners empty well, while the lower storey is in a form of square empty well. On the four walls inside the Pavilion colorful murals are painted, the theme of which is the images of 16 Arhats and 2 Ming Dynasty Emperors, which are the earliest subjects of Buddhism.

Copper bells are hung under eaves corners, swaying with the wind, a specially refined scene. The most attractive thing is the structure of Dougong (sets of brackets on top of the columns supporting the beams within and roof eaves without----each set consisting of tiers of outstretching arms called Gong, cushioned with trapezoidal blocks called Dou). It is made of overlapping Dougong shaped wood blocks and bow shaped horizontal wood bars by adopting 24 forms with each layer stretching out as bracket, big in upper part and small in lower part, thinly scattered, steady and sturdy. It makes eaves of the Pavilion look like flying, far and deep in the sky, a beautiful and magnificent view.