The Zhihua monastery is one of the great Buddhist temple compounds in the Chinese capital of Beijing. Conceived on a grand scale, the compound was built in the early 1400s by the eunuch Wang Zhen. This ceiling comes from the second of five main halls on the monastery's central axis — the Hall of Great Wisdom.To give visitors a sense of the original context, the Museum installed the ceiling with architectural elements reconstructed from measured drawings made at the original site. In the center is a writhing imperial dragon surrounded by clouds, bracketing, and eight canted panels, each bearing a smaller dragon among clouds. Lotuses, apsaras (Buddhist flying musicians), and other Buddhist religious symbols are carved in the surrounding panels. The Chinese name for this central part of the ceiling is tianjing, or "well of heaven." While most of the original red lacquer is well preserved, much of the rich overlay of gold leaf has been lost.A series of model temples supported by cloud-decorated brackets encompass the central element; within these miniature structures are delicately carved sculptures of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. The remainder of the ceiling consists of square panels painted with stylized lotus flowers that show the influence of Tibetan Buddhism (Lamaism). Each bears a character from a North Indian script (called Lantsha by the Tibetans) that symbolically recreates the universe. The model temples and panels may have been added during repairs made in the Kangxi period (1662–1722).
close view, painted celing panel. Each of the wooden ceiling panels or boards is decorated in bright pigments and gilding with what appears to be a mandala, a cosmological diagram of the universe depicted using lantsa script, an Indic script derived from Sanskrit used for Buddhist devotional inscriptions. In the center is the syllable om. The other syllables surrounding om are imperfectly formed but appear to represent a Buddhist deity of the four cardinal points and four intermediate directions. The central om syllable and the four cardinal syllables appear to depict the Five Buddha families that represent the Five Wisdoms—appropriate for a ceiling from the Temple of Wisdom Attained (Zhihuasi).
近景, 曼荼罗装饰。 每个木制天花板面板或木板都用明亮的颜料装饰，并用看起来像曼陀罗的东西镀金，这是一个用兰萨文字描绘的宇宙的宇宙图，这是一种源自梵文的印度文字，用于佛教虔诚的铭文。 中间是音节om。 围绕 om 的其他音节不完整，但似乎代表了四个要害和四个中途方向的佛教神灵。 中心的 om 音节和四个主要音节似乎描绘了代表五种智慧的五佛家族——适合于获得智慧寺 (Zhihuasi) 的天花板。