The Dai nationality, living in the south and southwest of Yunnan, believes in Theravada Buddhism, also called Hinayana Buddhism. The Buddhist monastery and pagoda, among buildings, have gained the highest achievements and possess the most distinguishing features.

a miansi temple

The Theravada Buddhist monastery is called a miansi temple. There is at least one such temple in almost every Dai village. According to religious discipline, every male must become a monk once during childhood, learning to read and write in the monastery. The Miansi Monastery provides a place not only for religious activities, but also for celebrations, election of leaders and mediation of disputes. The monastery has gone beyond pure religious significance, and people cherish a special cordial feeling for it. Therefore, the Miansi temple is quite different from a Buddhist monastery in Han areas and the Lamaist temples of Tibetan Buddhism. It is not so strict and solemn as the former, nor as magnificent and uninhibited as the latter; rather, it appears closer to the people. It is exquisite in shape, beautiful in posture and simple and unaffected in character.

 The ManSuman Monastery

The ManSuman Monastery in Ganlanba of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, located on the east bank of the Lancang River, is arranged in order from east to west with temple gate, approach porch and Buddhist hall. On the northeast side of the Buddhist hall is a Dai-style Buddhist pagoda; on the other side is a monastic hall, constituting an extremely vivid and beautiful but not symmetrical composition.

Temple gate with three rooms, roof with two slopes, high in the middle and low by the side, simple in technique but rich in bodily form. Unlike the Han Buddhist hall which takes longitude as the front, the Buddhist hall, plane and rectangular, takes gable (i.e., short side). The center of the big hall is covered with two sloping roofs. The four sides surround a single sloping roof, and the whole composition is a two-section roof like a Chinese-hip-and-gable roof. A huge statue of Buddha is erected within the hall facing east.

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