Architectural Representation of the Tusita Heavenly Palace at Kaihua Monastery in Gaoping

The murals in the main hall of Kaihua Monastery in Gaoping, Shanxi province, are the only paintings that have survived on the walls of a NorthernSong temple/monastery. A large-scale architectural boundary painting ( jiehua) on the east side of the north wall depicts Maitreya’s ascension with a grand scene of Tusita Heaven. The paper explores this representation (transformation tableau or jingbian) of the heavenly palace of the Buddha through virtual restoration and comparative analysis, and identifies its architectural characteristics and rules of composition. The paper then suggests a way of walking through the inside of the monastery based on the narrative role of the transformation tableau.