Roof

On the very top of the pagodas, towers and gates are special bronze and ceramic roof ornaments in the typical Tang Dynasty style. These traditional structures were specially designed and commissioned with Masuoka and Ishino from Nara, Japan. These companies specialize in producing and restoring such traditional temple roof structures for the historic temples in Japan.

Roof tiles were first put into use in Qin and Han Dynasty. Tiles were categorized into flat tiles and pan tiles. With pan tiles put on top of flat tiles, rain could be prevented from leaking into buildings. Pan tiles were designed at manufacturers' will into different styles. In Tang Dynasty most religious buildings used the pattern of lotus. Flat tiles were designed to let rainwater flowed easily and protect wooden buildings from invasion of rain.

Many Japanese monks went to China to learn Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty when Buddhism was flourishing. Besides bringing back the Dharma, they transported the architectural styles of the temples to their homeland and established Tang-styled buildings on the soil of Japan. The techniques of baking and smouldering were also preserved in their entirety.

We then shortlisted the 3 companies, whom we interviewed and selected their proposed tiles at Nara in September 2005.

We met Ishino in October to observe their installation at one of their sites and to discuss our requirements and designs.

On 3 March 2006, Ven Shi Fa Zhao led a number of devotees to conduct a roof tiles kiln blessing ceremony at Ishino's kilns in Nara, Japan. It was a cool and bright spring day that mark the commencement of the production of 200,000 special ceramic roof tiles, especially for Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum.

These impressive, hand-crafted ridge-end tiles serve to anchor the ridge and roof tiles, as well as to beautify the roof. It also serves to protect the building from menacing spirits. At the 10,000 Buddhas Pagoda, the ridge-ends are installed with Dragon Head ridge-end tiles, featuring fearless dragons. If you look carefully, those facing east are more smiling, whilst those facing west are more menacing.

These are specially designed after a number of drafts to incorporate Tang Dynasty and Buddhist motifs. After an extensive of ancient temple tiles in China, Japan and Korea, Ven Shi Fa Zhao developed our own lotus design tile. In the center, there is a gold leaf lotus with 8 petals around the lotus pod, which will enhance and reflect sunlight, thereby catching one's eyes onto the roof.

These are heavy duty, traditional ceremic according to roof tiles following the Tang Dynasty tradition. Produced in Nara, Japan by Ishino, following ancient and elaborate processes with very strict quality control, these tiles can be expected to last for a few centuries.

When installed, these Ishino tiles add warmth and character to the entire building. The grey colour takes a different hue and intensity under different weather conditions, in bright sunshine, under cloudy sky and in the rain.

The Sponsorship of each roof tile was $50 with 200,000 roof tiles available for adoption and with the donor's name written on the reverse of the tile.