Traditional Chinese 山門 Hanyu Pinyin | Simplified Chinese 山门 | |
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Literal meaning The Gate of Three Liberations | ||
The Shanmen (simplified Chinese: 山门; traditional Chinese: 山門; pinyin: Shānmén), also known as Sangedatsumon or Gate of Three Liberations, is the most important gate of a Chinese Chan Buddhist temple.
Contents
The origin of the name
In order to keep away from the secular life, Buddhist temples are often built in unfrequented mountain forests, so the gates are known as the Mount Gates. Gates are usually built in a row with a big one in the middle and two small ones on two sides, which symbolize the gates of three liberations (三解脫門) in the Dharma. Its three gates are called "Kongmen" (空門; emptiness liberation), "wuxiangmen" (無相門; no-aspects liberation) and "wuyuanmen" (無愿門; desireless liberation).
Architectural Style
After successive wars and cultural discontinuity, with only one gate, most of the existing ancient Buddhist temples usually follow the hall style or change the middle gate of the three main gates into a hall called "Hall of Three Liberations" or "Hall of Mount Gate" (山門殿).