The Shuanglin Temple Art Gallery of Painted Sculptures at Pingyao, located at the Shuanglin Temple of Pingyao County in Shanxi Province, is a Buddhist art gallery. The Shuanglin Temple, where the Art Gallery of Painted Sculptures was set up in 1988, is one of the major sites under the state protection.
The temple consists of 11 temple palaces and halls in three compounds. Arranged along the central axis from the south to the north are the stage, the temple gate, the Heavenly King Hall, the Sakyamuni Hall, the Main Hall of a Buddhist Temple, and the Buddhist Patriarch Hall. Arrayed in the halls are the 1,600-odd almost intact painted sculptures, big and small, left from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). There are various kinds of sculptures such as ordinary sculptures, relieves and suspended sculptures, including figures, landscapes, animals and flowers, vivid and vigorous, all having their respective features. The best ones are theJingang(Buddha's warrior attendants), the Heavenly King, arhats, Kwanyin (Goddess of Mercy) and the consecrators.
Besides, the murals left from the Ming Dynasty in the Daxiong Baodian, the Thousand-Buddha Hall and Bodhisattva Hall, the Chinese Scholar tree left from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the stele left from the Song Dynasty (907-1279), the bell left from the Ming Dynasty and the ancient architectures are all rare art treasures of the temple.
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