l66 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



are oblong. The largest have several large halls and courts, the halls 

 alternating with the courts. On the main door of a temple two large 

 door gods are painted, one on each half. In front of this door there 

 are sometimes two large stone lions, on.e male and one female. The 

 male lion has one foot on a ball, and the female often has a baby lion 

 with her. The names of the temples are written in large characters 

 aliove the main entrance, so that they can be seen from a distance. 



On the inside, above the main entrance of some of the largest 

 temples, are stages and dressing rooms for theatricals. In front of 

 the stages are open courts, and on the two sides of these are balconies. 

 From the open courts and the balconies many people view the theatri- 

 cals, and it is believed that the gods, whose images are inside the 

 temples, also watch and enjoy them. 



Every temple has at least one cookstove, sleeping places for the 

 priests, and cupboards for the storage of dishes and cooking utensils. 

 In the largest temples there are separate kitchens and bedrooms, and 

 in some, separate dining rooms. 



Although a few temples in Szechwan are believed to date from the 

 T'ang dynasty more than a thousand years ago, most of them were 

 built during the Manchu dynasty. Very few were built during the 

 era of the Chinese Republic, and most of these are small. 



Every temple, in view of the fact that it is a home for gods and 

 priests and a place for worship, is a holy place. This sacredness often 

 extends to the trees that grow in the yards or courtyards of the 

 temples, some of which are holy and cannot be cut down. 



A temple may be located at any place for the sake of convenience, 

 but a goodly number of them have been erected in places noted for 

 the beauty of the scenery and which naturally arouse the emotions of 

 admiration, awe, and wonder. Many illustrations could be given. A 

 few li down the Min River from Chengtu is a temple called Wang- 

 chiang-lo, or "look-at-river pavilion," because of a beautiful pavilion 

 in the temple grounds from which there is a fine view up and down 

 the river. Shih-pao-chai, on the Yangtse River between Chungking 

 and Ichang, is a temple built on the top of a great rock, flat on top 

 and surrounded on every side by perpendicular cliffs, and reached 

 only by stairs going up through the beautiful pavilion of several 

 stories. From the top there is a grand view of the Yangtse River 

 and the surrounding tree-covered hills and mountains. Several tem- 

 ples at Suifu are on the tops of nearby mountains whence there is a 

 fine view of forest-covered mountains and the Min and the Yangtse 

 Rivers. Huang-lung-ssu, or Yellow Dragon Gorge, has several tem- 



