Lingshan Gong Fan is located in Wuxi Lingshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area, on the shore of the vast Taihu Lake, at the foot of Lingshan Mountain in Yu Xiu, Zhong Ling. The magnificent architecture stands next to the majestic Lingshan Buddha, and the magnificent art complements the unique and profound Buddhist culture. The Vatican Palace in Lingshan is the third phase of lingshan scenic spot after the Great Buddha in Lingshan and the bathing in Jiulong, which constitutes the three wonders of lingshan scenic spot. Lingshan scenic spot was laid on 1994, and it was built in three phases with a total investment of 2.6 billion yuan. At present, a national 5A-level tourist attraction has been built, which receives millions of Chinese and foreign tourists every year and has become a well-known Buddhist attraction at home and abroad.
issuing date
On June 23rd, 2008 165438+20081October 23rd, a Vatican Palace in Lingshan, which integrates the functions of culture, art, tourism and conference, officially opened its doors to welcome guests. The Vatican Palace in Lingshan is resplendent and magnificent, with a solemn and harmonious layout, with a total construction area of over 70,000 square meters. The Vatican Palace, with three floors, adopts a platform-type architectural layout, with the north-south central axis symmetrically distributed from east to west, with a total construction area of over 70,000 square meters, a building width of150m and a depth of180m. There are five pagodas at the top and an altar in the form of mandala at the back. The architectural form of Vatican Palace breaks through the tradition, mainly using durable materials such as stones. A large number of tall colonnades, long-span beams and columns, towering domes, oversized halls, etc. It not only embodies the profoundness of Buddhism, but also incorporates traditional cultural elements and distinctive characteristics of the times, and an iconic architecture handed down from generation to generation can be perfectly presented. The whole building is built on the mountain, which combines the architectural essence of the three major Buddhist languages in the world. Its uniqueness, the greatness of the Lingshan Buddha and the strangeness of the Kowloon irrigation bath constitute the three wonders of the new lingshan scenic spot. Absorbed the essence of traditional wood carving, stone carving and jade carving in China. Stepping into the Vatican Palace, a strong cultural atmosphere came to my face. Dongyang woodcarving, hand-painted murals by Dunhuang technicians, glass masterpieces, Yangzhou lacquerware, oil paintings, cloisonne sumeru lamps, Jingdezhen blue-and-white pastel pots, and Ou Su relief murals, these artistic treasures are performing excellent traditional culture in various areas of Lingshan Fangong. The culture of Vatican Palace is not only static, but also dynamic. As the carrier of oriental Buddhist art, the Vatican Palace in Lingshan can be called the "Louvre" in the East. The Vatican Palace is full of treasures and dazzling, and the Buddhist art atmosphere is profound. Large-scale slate buildings, golden pointed roofs and exquisite Buddha relief are just the beginning.
Break through the traditional temple architecture
The construction of the Vatican Palace in Lingshan originated from the convening of the World Buddhist Forum. In 2005, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province was selected as the host city of the second World Buddhist Forum, and lingshan scenic spot, which is located on the coast of Taihu Lake, is considered to have the conditions to hold the forum. Lingshan Industrial Co., Ltd., with four state-owned enterprises as its main shareholders, undertook the task of building the forum venue. Therefore, Wu Guoping, Chairman of Lingshan Industrial Co., Ltd. and Vice President of Jiangsu Buddhist Association, and his colleagues went to Hangzhou to observe the first World Buddhist Forum in 2006. We have a clear understanding of the main functions that venues should have, but there is no specific concept of what form the whole building should take.
The turning point appeared after studying in Wu Guoping. He visited many European churches, such as St Paul's Cathedral, Milan Cathedral and Notre Dame de Paris. And found that western churches are often as high as tens of meters, and the tall space can highlight the sacred feeling of religion and make people feel awe. In contrast, the traditional temple buildings in China are relatively narrow in height due to the limitation of wood structure. Therefore, the general requirement of Lingshan Industrial Company for architectural design is, "I hope to learn from the shaping of space by European architecture and build a world-class temple integrating religion and art, so that everyone who goes in will have a sense of reverence."
At the beginning of the construction, Lingshan Industry invited several top domestic design units and made dozens of schemes, including 5 from Tianjin University and East China Architectural Design Institute 17. Finally, after discussion and screening, five excellent schemes are left. The construction party handed over the final choice of "one of five choices" to the tourists in Lingshan. During the Golden Week of May 1, 2006, five schemes were made into renderings and placed in a conspicuous position in lingshan scenic spot. The investigation lasted for three days and more than 700 questionnaires were collected. Nearly 70% of the tourists chose the only classical scheme, that is, the Vatican Palace with five pagodas as the basic shape today.
On September 9, 2006, the Vatican Palace in Lingshan officially broke ground, which was undertaken by the Eighth Engineering Bureau of China Construction, with nearly 10,000 construction personnel, and was basically completed in August 2008.
It is more difficult than building a building in the Forbidden City.
In Vatican Palace, we can see Dongyang woodcarving, Dunhuang frescoes, Yangzhou lacquerware, cloisonne, coloured glaze, Wenzhou Ou Su and other art treasures. At present, it seems that only the Vatican Palace can integrate so many Chinese intangible cultural heritages into one building, so some people call it "the Louvre in the East". The Vatican Palace subverts the traditional concept of religious architecture in China, abandons the materials such as wood and glazed tiles commonly used in traditional Buddhist architecture in China, and adopts reinforced concrete construction, which brings great difficulties to the design and construction.
In order to do a good job in design, the design team thoroughly understood Buddhist culture, consulted materials, consulted experts and visited everywhere-as far away as Wutai Mountain, Yungang Grottoes, Dunhuang, and even India and Nepal. By the end of 2007, the design drawings had another major revision. Because the owner thinks that although stone can create a sense of space, it is too cold and hard, and wood products are more affinity. Later, a large number of wood carving components were integrated into the gallery hall of more than 8 meters, while the tower hall was decorated with nanmu and camphor wood from top to bottom. The use of a large number of wood carvings is full of Chinese flavor, which also dispels some people's concerns that the Vatican Palace will be too westernized.
These woodcarvings are all made by woodcarvers in Yoichi Higashi, Zhejiang. Dongyang, Zhejiang is the hometown of woodcarving in China. There are exquisite Dongyang woodcarvings in the Forbidden City, as well as in Jiangsu, Hangzhou and Anhui. According to statistics, the decorative area of woodcarving in Gong Fan of Lingshan reached10.5 million square meters, and more than 2,400 cubic meters of logs were used. For example, a tower hall is 65 meters high, with a span of 46.6 meters and an area of more than 2,000 square meters. This kind of space scale is unprecedented in Dongyang woodcarving decoration project, even more difficult than the construction in the Forbidden City! To this end, Dongyang has devoted almost all the county's efforts. Forty-two manufacturers and more than 65,438+0,560 craftsmen took over from the end of 2007, and continued to produce for 65,438+0 years and 4 months before it was finally successfully completed.
Gong Zhen's treasure
The treasure of Vatican Palace is the giant glass mural "China Tibet World" located at the end of the tower hall. Take the land, water, fire, wind and qi in Buddhism as the creative theme. It is composed of 160 pieces 1 m× 0.5 m glazed members, with a total width of 8 m and a height of 1 m, and is embedded with a bronze frame. Coloured glaze is one of the sacred objects of the seven treasures of Buddhism. Because of its technical characteristics of "from fire to water", it is considered to be the embodiment of the realm of practice for thousands of years. In addition to stained glass, the murals are also inlaid with gold, jadeite, coral, agate and other Buddhist "seven treasures" of 1.28 million, involving various traditional China crafts such as inlaying, carving and filigree. The inner tube of the Pilushana Buddha in the middle is made of 500 kilograms of silver, and the outer tube is made of 15 kilograms of gold. The performance content and artistic value of this giant glass mural are unprecedented not only in the history of china glass arts and crafts, but also in the history of world glass.
Located in front of the altar of Vatican Palace, the main hall consists of six domes with a diameter of nearly 10 meter, and each dome is painted with mysterious and beautiful Dunhuang murals, creating a cave-like visual effect. The authors of these murals are Hou Liming, president of Dunhuang Academy of Fine Arts, and dozens of painters representing the highest level of Dunhuang mural creation at present. Since May 2008, painters have been painting these dome murals on the spot. They climb tall scaffolding every day, just like Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and work with their heads up for more than ten hours.
There is a little-known "bright spot" in the Vatican Palace complex in Lingshan, that is, the lighting technology adopted by the Vatican Palace is "seeing the light but not seeing the light". The mystery of "seeing the light but not seeing the light" lies in the huge sinking of the roof. This sinking is a combination of different wood components layer by layer. By illuminating the back with wood carving components, visitors will feel the solemnity and mystery brought by the lighting, that is, the ingenuity of the lighting designer-"seeing the light but not seeing the light".
Architectural composition
Vatican Palace adopts a symmetrical terrace layout, with halls, corridors, towers and altars in turn from south to north. There is a banquet hall for thousands of people and a three-way conference hall on the east and west sides. There are five pagodas at the top and an altar in the form of mandala at the back. The use of a large number of tall colonnades, long-span beams and columns, towering domes and auditoriums not only embodies the profoundness of Buddhism, but also incorporates traditional cultural elements and distinctive characteristics of the times, and a landmark building handed down from generation to generation can be perfectly presented.
The foyer is the transportation hub of the Vatican Palace. The entrance hall is about118m wide and18m deep. The east passage leads to the dining area and the west passage leads to the meeting area. On the front, three golden doors imitating grottoes are the main entrance of Vatican Palace, leading to the corridor. The main color of the whole hall is bright yellow in the Buddhist tradition, which gives people a feeling of calm and peace. The ground paved with white marble is fresh and elegant, solemn and simple, and the transparent four-grid skylight echoes the circular altar below, which is soft and natural. The exquisite Dongyang woodcarving "Harmony Double Bottle" with a height of 3.8 meters on both sides of the foyer is the masterpiece of Master Lu, a descendant of Dongyang woodcarving, symbolizing harmony and beauty.
The corridor hall is an exchange hall connecting the tower hall and the altar. The whole corridor hall is a vault structure, with a height of 18m and a length of nearly 80m, all carved with golden nanmu. There are 12 giant oil paintings called "The Spread of Buddhism in the World" between the tall and majestic colonnade on both sides of 16, each of which is as high as 12 meters. Taking the spread, exchange and development of contemporary Buddhism as the theme, it vividly shows the historical picture of the spread and exchange of Buddhism and the rich connotation of Buddhist culture, forming a set of three-dimensional cultural corridors and visual feasts.
The top of the gallery is a square nested algae well with a three-dimensional lotus pattern carved in the center. Square algae wells are arranged neatly, covering the whole vault, giving people a feeling of holding their heads high and overlooking. The seven colors of the algae well change rhythmically, reflecting four groups of flying ladies hanging in the shed. These flying shapes created by the thousand-year-old skill of "born out of raw lacquer" are beautiful in shape, plump in posture, elegant in flying sleeves, lifelike in playing pipa, flute or holding fragrant flowers, bringing colorful clouds to the sky, making people feel like they are in a fairyland.
At the end of the gallery is a large-scale glass masterpiece "Huazang World", which is the treasure of the town hall and made of precious materials such as glass gold. It has created a grand and bright cosmic realm created by Buddhism, which can be called a masterpiece of culture and technology.
The tower hall is located in the middle of the corridor hall, which is a colorful chapter in the climax; It is located in the lower part of China Tower, with dome structure, communicating with China Tower from top to bottom, with a space as high as 60 meters. The tall space and exquisite dome decoration are shocking. Looking up at the sky, the stars on the top cover of the deep blue Huata Tower are shining and transparent, as if they were under the boundless blue sky. The mysterious sky seems to be close at hand, and the stars seem to be within reach, which makes people think and feel the meaning of purity and peace.
The tower hall is carved everywhere, and the arc ceiling and its surroundings are decorated with a large number of exquisite Dongyang woodcarvings, mainly precious nanmu. The surrounding walls are decorated with four giant wood carvings, named after "purity, faithfulness, filial piety and harmony", which vividly shows the spiritual connotation of Buddhist beliefs. Each woodcarving work is 7.39 meters high and 4.3 meters wide, which is easy to understand, magnificent and infectious. It shows the historical volume of the mutual integration and development of Buddhism and Chinese civilization, and is a masterpiece with the highest artistic and cultural value in the Vatican Palace in Lingshan, which can reflect the artistic achievements of contemporary Buddhism.
Altar dome
The dome of the altar vestibule is a unique creative and unique connecting space in the Vatican Palace in Lingshan. The front hall of the altar consists of six domes with a diameter of nearly 10 meter. Combined with the unique architectural form of the circular dome, dozens of painters representing the highest level of Dunhuang mural creation lasted for several months, and presented a mysterious and beautiful Dunhuang mural "Sky Map" in the Vatican Palace in Lingshan. The mural "Sky Map" painted on the spot is mainly composed of blazing Buddha, the full picture of Nine Yao Stars and the zodiac, with golden brown as the main tone. It pursues dynamic trends in stability, solidifies without stagnation, flows without looseness, and makes every dome full of ups and downs. It has created a solemn, luxurious, harmonious and beautiful Buddhist art atmosphere for the front hall of the altar, showing the unique charm of oriental Buddhist culture.
The most important place in Vatican Palace is the altar, which is a circular venue for meetings, performances and visits, and also the main venue of the World Buddhist Forum. With a building area of 35,000 square meters, it can hold a large-scale international conference of 2,000 people. Above the altar is a huge dome more than 30 meters high. 1, 500 golden lotus lights are turned on instantly. In an instant, more than 1,000 computer-controlled led light sources arch the dome, just like the starry sky, which can change more than 654 38+0,654 38+0,000 kinds of light changes. A three-dimensional stage can "grow" a towering bodhi tree with a height of10m and a width of165438+100000 leaves in the center of the stage within10.5 minutes. At the same time, under the comprehensive effect of dozens of large-scale projection equipment and the most advanced digital lighting control system in the world, a wonderful scene that is both dreamy and immersive is created. A large-scale scene performance "Ode to Good Luck in Lingshan" rehearsed by the top domestic team composed of Lin Zhaohua and He Xuntian, aiming at promoting traditional culture and enlightening spiritual wisdom, was staged here.
Between the wonderful sounds of nature, scenes or magical spectacular or illusory fantasy scenes alternate in time and space. People follow them, crossing the tunnel of the past, reality and future for hundreds of millions of years, experiencing the world transformation of hell, earth and heaven, walking in the tranquility of long corridors, pavilions, flowers and trees, experiencing the ever-changing crackling sound and * * * *, and realizing life under the colorful butterflies and sacred bodhi trees flying from time to time ... perfect voice.
On the second floor on the east side of the foyer is the banquet hall for thousands of people in the Vatican Palace in Lingshan, which can accommodate 1200 people at the same time. It is also a comprehensive activity place with exhibition hall, banquet hall and other functions. The banquet hall for thousands of people does not use columns, which shows the unique intangible cultural heritage in the world-the works of Ou Su in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. As a traditional art in China, it combines painting art with modern three-dimensional murals, and uses pigments, white mud and various mineral pigments as painting materials, forming a combination of painting and relief. Looking at a painting from a distance, it looks like a sculpture and is known as "the three-dimensional oil painting of the East". Large-scale "Colorful Lotus" and "Lotus Reflecting the Sun" were created by Mr. Zhou Jinyun, a master of arts and crafts in China, and became the artistic treasures of the Vatican Palace.
The conference area is located on the west side of the Vatican Palace in Lingshan, including three large conference halls, VIP conference halls and lounges, with a construction area of about 350 square meters. There are six small conference rooms with 100 people on the second floor, and there are exhibition halls and internal offices on the third floor; The space of the conference area is spread around the square courtyard to obtain suitable space effect. The conference halls of the three major language families have their own characteristics, which are not only distinctive in style, but also multifunctional. As one of the sub-venues of the World Buddhist Forum, they are also exhibition halls for displaying Buddhist culture and works of art in the Han Dynasty. The whole conference area embodies three characteristics of integration: integration into the world, integration into history and integration into essence. Integration into the world Buddhist style: the conference hall is divided into three styles: Han Chuan, Nan Chuan and Tibetan. Integration into history: the conference hall uses a large number of historical and traditional cultural factors to highlight the cultural atmosphere; Fusion essence: the combination of modern science and technology and exquisite craftsmanship shows the treasures of Buddhist culture and art in three major language families.
Vatican Palace is not only a magnificent building, an artistic temple, but also a rich and splendid cultural treasure house. It perfectly and harmoniously combines Buddhism, culture, art, technology and architecture, bringing people more spiritual shock and artistic enjoyment. It allows China's traditional folk crafts to be inherited and developed, China's traditional Buddhist architecture to be innovated, and China Buddhism to be better spread around the world.
Overlooking the Vatican Palace in Lingshan, five golden lotus flowers soar into the sky, shining with holy light in the sun, and the blue sky streamed away overhead; The rolling mountains behind him stand still, a scene of a Buddhist country on earth. The sky map was created by Hou Liming, president of Dunhuang Academy of Fine Arts. Drawing the decorative dome painting in the Vatican Palace in Lingshan is the biggest drawing task they have undertaken so far, and the drawing process almost brings together dozens of painters representing the highest level of Dunhuang mural creation at present. The mural "Sky Map" of the Vatican Palace in Lingshan, combined with the unique architectural form of the vault, is based on the Dalagni Sutra of "The Buddha says that it shines, weather is different and auspicious" translated by Master Bukong in the Tang Dynasty, and is composed of the blazing Buddha, the full picture of the nine Yao stars and the zodiac as the main elements. The center of the circle is the blazing Buddha, the inner circle is the Nine Obsidian Star, and the outer circle is the zodiac, which is arranged in the whole dome in three layers at one time. The patterns of the twenty-eight nights are scattered, and the unique patterns of Buddhist culture such as Feitian, Lotus and grape grain are organically combined with the whole picture. The four corners of each dome have a flying sky to protect the four directions. The whole work presents a picture of the sky in all directions. The sky is bright and beautiful, the sky is soaring, the clouds are ethereal and the smallpox is spinning, which highlights the dynamic intention of the astronomical map and shows the astronomical illusion of the Buddhist Datura.