Dongda Hall at Foguang Temple in Wutai County, Shanxi, was completed in 857 CE in the Tang dynasty, after the 845 destruction of Buddhist temples. A donor named Ning Gongyu appears in beam and pillar inscriptions, though one passage spells it Ning Gongwu, and the monk Yuancheng led construction. The article names no architect.
It is Tang timber architecture, with a hipped roof and complex bracket sets, seven bays by four, on a stone platform measuring 112 by 58 feet (34 by 17.7 m). It is known for the Four Supremacies of architecture, sculpture, murals and inscriptions. Sculpture counts conflict, at 36 in one place and 35 Tang clay sculptures in another.
Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin rediscovered it in 1937. Conservation began in 2005 with the Global Heritage Fund and Tsinghua University, which reported water damage and rotting beams. It is an active Buddhist temple within the Mount Wutai UNESCO site, listed in 2009.
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