The Double pagoda and Main Hall of Luohan Court is located at 22-1 Dinghuisi Lane, Fenghuang Street, Suzhou, China and is listed as national key cultural relics protection site in 1996.
In the second year of the Reign of Xiantong Emperor of Tang Dynasty (861), Sheng Chu create a Buddhist temple here, with the early name prajnaparamita. In Five Dynasties period, Qian Family of the Wu and Yue District Changed it into a Luohan court instend.From the seventh year of taiping xingguo (982) to middle of the Reign of Yongxi of Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Wenhan and his brother donated money to rebuild the halls and constructed two brick pagoda here. In the second year of the Reign of Zhidao(996), the name was changed to Long Life Monastery, and also known as the Double Tower Temple. The temple underwent several repairs, mostly on the tower spire. The temple experienced ups and downs for several times.
Double pagodas are two seven-story octagonal pavilion style brick towers standing shoulder to shoulder in east and west, with identical structural form, composition and size. The surfaces of the bottom walls of the pagoda are merely 15 meters apart, about 33.3 meters high, and the opposing sides of the bottom story is 5.5 meters wide. The original base of the Main hall is in the north side of the double pagodas, 21 meters away from the core, facing south. The central axis of the hall is 3.5 meters westward against that of the double pagoda. The width and depth of Main hall are three rooms, east, west, north sides of which are circled with corridors. The total width is 18.4 meters and the total depth 18.2 meters, a square plane. The central hall room has a terrace stretching southward. In addition, there are stone thresholds, stone Luohan, stone sumeru seat, stone lions, etc, pitifully damaged or ruined. In the newly built tablet corridor, 10 pieces of stele, which have recorded the rise and fall and evolution of temples, pagodas, the halls, are kept, being precious historical documents.
The Double pagoda and Main Hall of Luohan Court was built in the early northern song dynasty. In the subsequent one thousand more years, only the spire of the tower are repaired for many times, whereas the structural style remained unchanged. The outer wall of the tower is octagonal, but internal square chamber still follows the old custom since the Northern Wei Dynasty, a material evidence of the brick tower plane evolution between Tang and Song Dynasty. The locations for the chamber and the commentary door in the outer wall comprise " alternate angle structure", which is reasonable and endow the pagoda with abound changes in the exterior outlook and is regarded as important evidence in the process that the brick structure imitates the style of wooden structure.
The main hall, which has been restored after cleaning and renovation, is the only architectural relics of the Song Dynasty protected as cultural relics in Suzhou, the stone engraving columns and plinths of which are astonishingly beautiful.
