Nanchan Temple (Wutai)

Nanchan Temple
The Great Buddha Hall of Nanchan Temple
Basic information
Location	Wutaishan
Geographic coordinates	38°42′04″N 113°06′50″E / 38.70111°N 113.11389°E / 38.70111; 113.11389Coordinates: 38°42′04″N 113°06′50″E / 38.70111°N 113.11389°E / 38.70111; 113.11389
Affiliation	Buddhist
Province	Shanxi
Country	People's Republic of China
Completed	782 Tang Dynasty

Nanchan Temple (Chinese: ; pinyin: Nán Chán Sì) is a Buddhist temple located near the town of Doucun on Wutaishan, Shanxi Province, China. Nanchan Temple was built in 782 CE during China's Tang Dynasty, and its Great Buddha Hall is currently China's oldest preserved timber building extant, as wooden buildings are often prone to fire and various destructions. Not only is Nanchan Temple an important architectural site, but it also contains an original set of artistically-important Tang sculptures dating from the period of its construction. Seventeen sculptures share the hall's interior space with a small stone pagoda.

According to an inscription on a beam, the Great Buddha Hall of Nanchan Temple was first built in 782 CE during the Tang Dynasty. It escaped destruction during the Buddhist purges of 845, perhaps due to its isolated location in the mountains. Another inscription on a beam indicates that the hall was renovated in 1086 of the Song Dynasty, and during that time all but four of the original square columns were replaced with round columns. In the 1950s the building was rediscovered by architectural historians, and in 1961 it was recognized as China's oldest standing timber-frame building. Just five years later in 1966, the building was damaged in an earthquake, and during the renovation period in the 1970s, historians got a chance to study the building piece by piece.

As the oldest extant timber-frame building in China, The Great Buddha Hall is an important building in the understanding of Chinese architectural history. The humble building is a three bay square hall that is 10 meters deep and 11.75 meters across the front. The roof is supported by twelve pillars that are implanted directly into a brick foundation. The hip-gable roof is supported by five-puzuo brackets. The hall does not contain any interior columns or a ceiling, nor are there any struts supporting the roof in between the columns. All of these features indicate that this is a low-status structure. The hall contains several features of Tang Dynasty halls, including its longer central front bay, the use of camel-hump braces, and the presence of a yuetai.