Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass


The Cloud Platform at Juyongguan is a mid-14th-century architectural feature situated in the Guangou Valley at the Juyongguan Pass of the Great Wall of China, in the Changping District of Beijing Municipality, about northwest of central Beijing. Although the structure looks like a gateway, it was originally the base for three white dagobas or stupas, with a passage through it, a type of structure known as a "crossing street tower". The platform is renowned for its Buddhist carvings and for its Buddhist inscriptions in six languages. The Cloud Platform was the 98th site included in the first batch of 180 Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level as designated by the State Council of China in April 1961.

History

The platform was built between 1342 and 1345, during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Yuan Dynasty, by imperial command. It was part of the Buddhist Yongming Baoxiang Temple, which was situated at the Juyongguan Pass northwest of the capital, Dadu. The road from the capital to the summer capital, Shangdu, in the north went through this pass, and so the emperor would pass through the temple at least twice a year. The temple had a north gate and a south gate, and the platform supporting three white dagobas was constructed on the inside of the south gate of the temple. The passageway underneath the dagobas was wide enough to allow pedestrians and carts to pass through into the temple.
It is recorded that in 1343 the official Ouyang Xuan was paid 50 taels of silver for writing dedicatory inscriptions on two stelae to commemorate the completion of the "crossing street tower" at Juyongguan. However, the small Chinese inscription on the west wall of the platform is dated the 9th month of the 5th year of the Zhizheng era, so the engravings and inscriptions must have taken two more years to complete.
The Qing Dynasty scholar Gu Yanwu suggested that the construction of the Cloud Platform was begun in 1326, on the basis that the History of Yuan records that a Uyghur official called Uduman was sent to carve dharanis in the language of the western barbarians on the rockface at Juyongguan. However, the inscriptions referred to here are probably not the inscriptions on the Cloud Platform, and so modern scholarship dates the construction of the Cloud Platform to 1342 or 1343.
in Beijing
By the early Ming Dynasty two of the three dagobas on the platform had collapsed or had been dismantled. By the reign of the Zhengtong Emperor no dagobas remained, and the structure was given the name "Cloud Platform", because from a distance it seemed to rise out of the clouds. A project to restore the platform was carried out between 1443 and 1450. When the platform was surveyed by a Japanese expedition in 1943 a stele commemorating the restoration, dated 1448, was found on top of the platform. However, the restoration was not completed until 1450, as evidenced by an inscription on the far right-hand side of the inner west wall of the platform, dated the 15th day of the 5th month of the 15th year of the Zhengtong era, that records that the restoration was carried out by a benefactor named as Lin Puxian. The restoration involved building a five-roomed wooden Buddhist hall, called the Tai'an Temple, on top of the platform, in place of the original dagobas.
In 1702, in the 41st year of the reign of the Kangxi Emperor there was a fire, and the Buddhist hall on top of the platform burnt down. The platform was not restored again, and by the time it was surveyed by a Japanese expedition in 1943 it was in a state of neglect and disrepair. In 1961 the platform was repaired, and the balustrades around the top were restored. The platform is now surrounded by a carpark. Several hundred meters from the Cloud Platform in adjoining carparks are sections of the Great Wall going up both sides of the Valley, often crowded with tourists climbing up to panoramic views. Most are not aware of the Cloud Platform, which is easy to miss from both the ground and the viewpoints up the mountains.

Description

The Cloud Platform is a rectangular structure, with sloping walls clad in white marble. The dimensions of the structure are at the base and at the top, and the structure is in height. The top of the platform is surrounded by a marble balustrade, with marble dragonhead gargoyles at the base of each pillar, in total 54 small gargoyles around the edges and four large gargoyles at the corners. A passageway runs through the platform in a north-south orientation, with a semi-octagonal arch, wide and high, at either end.
The edges of the arches on both sides, and the inner walls and ceilings of the passageway are decorated with bas-relief carvings of Buddhist images, as well as inscriptions of Buddhist texts in six different scripts. The Buddhist iconography is typical of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, and was intended to bring blessings on those who passed through the passageway, and to protect the Yuan state and its capital from misfortune.
Both the north and the south arch have the same symmetrical decoration. On each side of each arch is a crossed vajra, above which is an elephant surmounted by a youth riding a mythical creature. At the peak of each arch is a garuda catching a pair of half-human, half-snake nagaraja.
The ends of the inner walls are decorated with large images,, of the Four Heavenly Kings, each with various attendants, and treading on demons or ghosts:
On the inner walls between the Heavenly Kings are inscriptions of the Sanskrit text of the "Dharani-Sutra of the Victorious Buddha-Crown" and the "Dharani-Sutra of the Tathagata Heart" in six different scripts, as well as translations of the "Record of Merits in the Construction of the Pagoda" in five languages, and summaries of the "Dharani-Sutra of the Tathagata Heart" in two languages. The sloping walls of the ceiling are decorated with the Buddhas of the Ten Directions, five on each side, with the space between them taken up with small images of the Thousand Buddhas of the present kalpa. The flat ceiling at the top is decorated with five mandalas of the Five Dhyani Buddhas.

Inscriptions

The inscriptions on the inside walls of the platform are written in six different scripts:
Each of these six scripts is used to transcribe the Sanskrit text of two Buddhist dharani-sutras in large characters, one dharani-sutra in each script on each wall:
In addition to the two Sanskrit dharani-sutras written in large characters in all six scripts, five of the scripts are used to write the "Record of Merits in the Construction of the Pagoda" in one of five different languages, in small characters:
The Tibetan, Mongolian and Uyghur versions of the "Record of Merits" are written over both the east and west walls, whereas the Chinese and Tangut versions are complete on the east wall, and the small script Chinese and Tangut inscriptions on the west wall are explanatory summaries in the Chinese and Tangut languages of the "Dharani-Sutra of the Tathagata Heart".

East wall

The inscriptions on the east inner wall of the passageway are laid out as below:
The inscriptions on the west inner wall of the passageway are laid out as below:
The summary of the "Dharani-Sutra of the Tathagata Heart" in Chinese is concluded with an inscription specifying that it was written on an auspicious day of the 9th month of the 5th year of the Zhizheng era by a monk called Decheng from the Baoji Temple in Chengdu. The Old Uyghur version of the "Record of Merits" is also concluded with a date, but it is now damaged, and all that can be made out is the Zhizheng era.

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