First Storey

Above the Maitreya Trinity in the Hundred Dragons Hall, you will see the elegant Maitreya Canopy with a golden dragon circling above the Maitreya statue. In front of this canopy, on the ceiling, hung the Dhvaja banners.

A baldachin (Sanskrit：chatra; Pali: vitana; Chinese: 天蓋 ; Japanese: tengai 天蓋, sangai 傘蓋, hougai 宝蓋, kagai 華蓋, kengai 懸蓋) is a canopy made of painted or gilded metal or wood; and hung above Buddhist altars and/or over Buddhist statues, said to be derived from parasols used by Indian nobility. Initially as an umbrella to shade Buddha from sun and rain, it became one of the ornaments for Buddha sculptures.

Those placed over abbots' seats are called raiban 礼盤 or jintengai 人天蓋 in Japanese.

Originally, the canopies were made of silk and were intended to resemble a long-handled Indian umbrella (Japanese: kinugasa 絹笠).

Subsequently, the canopies evolved into different shapes: square, flower, hexagonal, octagonal or circular. Many canopies were decorated with (Japanese: housouge 宝相華) openwork (Japanese: sukashibori 透彫) or relief carving (Japanese: *ukibori 浮彫) of arabesque flower patterns, dragons, clouds , lotus flowers, eight heavenly beings scattering flowers and incense, offerings and music playing (Flying asparas, Japanese: hiten 飛天) depictions.

Often ornamental objects such as the jewelled net (Japanese: ramou 羅網) were hung from the canopy. Trinkets (Japanese: youraku 瓔珞) and/or streamers were hung along its bottom edges.

At the canopy's front left and right sides, were hung a pair of golden dhvaja banners. Both dhvaja banners are identical, with a long cuboid shaft which has a square base as its body and an inverted umbrella shaped canopy. Long strings of trinkets suspend from the four corners of the canopy. Nine sets of intricate floral-themed ornaments with small bells and precious stones (below) are found on each string, ending with a larger bell at the bottom.

On each four sides of the main shaft body is found the long name mantra of Buddha Maitreya (Traditional Chinese: 南無當來下生彌勒尊佛), written vertically in Li Shu (隶书). Below the mantra is a mezzo-rilievo (mid-relief) depiction of a Chinese-styled scaly three-clawed dragon flying majestically amongst blue and green cloud scrolls and red flames (above). Unlike the mantra, which were all identically depicted, each dragon on the four sides of the canopy displays a different posture.

At the bottom of the main body is a narrower cylindrical tail consisting of long thin basso-rilievo (low relief) ornate panels (above).

A multi-coloured circular lotus flower motif serves as the bottom base of the whole structure, which is visible only when viewed from below (above).

In Buddhism, the dhvaja is usually embroidered with the Sutra or Buddha's name and hung or placed in front of the Buddha's image. This decoration is to show that the Buddha is leading the people to discipline the Mara, liberate from sins, and achieve eternal happiness. The dhvaja symbolises the victory of the Buddha's Teachings over death, ignorance, disharmony and all the negativities of this world.

In ancient China, the guard of honour used to carry dhvaja during their ceremonial procession. It is like an umbrella made of silk fixed on top of a long post for carriage. After Buddhism entered China, the Buddhist translators wrote the sutras on the long cylindrical silk umbrellas and called it sutra dhvaja.

Normally, the Sutra dhvaja is cylindrical in shape, with the pearls fixed on top of the dhvaja to symbolize the mani (felicitous pearl), below is a circular cover (sometimes in hexagonal or octagonal shape), and the yellow silk strips hanged below. The cylindrical dhvaja made of yellow brocade is called Golden Dhvaja, Chinese Dhvaja or Precious Dhvaja.

In order to keep the sutra dhvaja for longer periods, Buddhist translators started to craft the sutra on stone and called it stone dhvaja, and later also called sutra dhvaja. In China, the stone dhvaja started during the Six dynasties, and the crafting of Dharani sutra started during the Tang dynasty.

Within the Tibetan tradition, there were eleven different forms of the victory banner to represent the eleven specific methods for overcoming defilements. Many variations of the dhvaja's design can be seen on the roofs of Tibetan monasteries to symbolize the Buddha's victory over four maras.