Fengguo Monastery, in the Chinese north-east, is valued for a single extraordinary building: a great hall of traditional timber construction, among the oldest surviving wooden Buddhist sanctuaries in this part of the country. Under its deep bracketed roof stands a row of monumental seated Buddhas, aligned across the width of the hall, flanked by attendant figures whose gestures and drapery are carved with remarkable assurance. Around them, painted decoration survives on walls and beams. The episode is built around two lines of interest for cultural strands. The first is technical: how a timber frame of this span was assembled, how the bracket sets carry the roof, how the structure has been maintained. The second is devotional: the hall remains a place of practice, and the camera records incense, prostration and the scale relationship between a human body and a colossal image.
