In 1983, the late Cambodian King Father Norodom Sihanouk traveled to Kaiyuan Monastery in Quanzhou, Fujian province, after a search that had drawn him toward a Buddhist hall whose name had long been familiar across Southeast Asia.

According to Deyuan, a temple master who recounted the story to a group of ASEAN journalists visiting the site on September 21, Sihanouk had learned of the Hundred-Pillar Hall from a book. He asked Chinese officials where it stood, but they could not identify its location at first.

Deyuan said the historian Guo Moruo, who had earlier visited Quanzhou, helped connect the legendary hall with that city. Officials later accompanied Sihanouk to Kaiyuan Temple.

A Story Shaped by Maritime Exchange

The episode offers a glimpse into Sihanouk’s interest in Asian religious culture and into the old networks that linked coastal China with Southeast Asia. Deyuan said Quanzhou’s importance as a port on the ancient Maritime Silk Road helped spread knowledge of its Buddhist sites. Merchants and travelers carried stories abroad, so the Hundred-Pillar Hall became celebrated well beyond China, even as some people forgot that it was in Quanzhou.

The royal connection continued after the 1983 visit. A member of the Cambodian royal family described during the interview as one of Sihanouk’s sons came to the temple in 1993, ten years later.

Kaiyuan Temple and Its Main Hall

Kaiyuan Temple, founded during the Tang dynasty, is among Fujian’s most important Buddhist sites. It belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage listing “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China,” inscribed in 2021.

The complex’s main worship space is officially the Mahavira Hall, though it is commonly called the Hundred-Pillar Hall. The nickname is not literal, since the hall has far fewer than 100 columns. Deyuan said the building was rebuilt in 1637 after an earthquake damaged an earlier structure in 1604.

Imperial Rank and Religious Symbolism

The hall’s elevated status is reflected in architectural details associated with imperial rank: a double-eaved roof, nine bays and five steps. Deyuan explained that many southern temples have only a single-layer roof, while this hall has two.

Inside, five large Buddha statues represent the east, west, north, south and center. Deyuan described this arrangement of the Five Direction Buddhas as unique in China.

• Twenty-four carved celestial musicians appear high among the beams.
• Each figure holds a different instrument or cultural object.
• The carvings are tied to China’s 24 traditional solar terms and to the cycle from day to night.

Wood Craft That Breathes With the Building

Beyond decoration, the hall demonstrates careful timber engineering. Its overlapping wooden parts are joined in a way that allows air to move through the upper framework.

Deyuan said that ventilation helps reduce dust, cobwebs and birds’ nests among the beams. The same system also helps divert wind during typhoons: when air enters the structure, it forms currents that are released in multiple directions through the woodwork.

Deyuan compared the hall’s double-layered beams to a modern bridge and said heritage specialists have been impressed that builders used such a concept in a religious structure more than four centuries ago. The story of Sihanouk’s visit, he suggested, is another reminder of how religions, people and ideas once crossed the seas between China and Southeast Asia.