Huayan Monastery is the largest as well as the best preserved monastery of Liao Dynasty in existence throughout China. The monastery was built strictly according to the Huayan Sutra of Huayan School and uniquely placed in facing east instead of south facing like many other monasteries. The monastery has been divided into two sections in which the upper section is named as Grand hall that housed 5 large Buddha of Ming Dynasty; while the lower one is named as Sutra Temple which contains a library of 18000 volumes of Buddhism writings.
In fact, Huayan Monastery used to be the ancestral temple of the imperial families of Liao Dynasty on the first place. It was the temple where the ceremony for offering sacrifices for the former emperor of Liao Dynasty. However, in the middle of Ming Dynasty, the monastery had been separated into two sections. The monastery had gone through many times of renovations and refurbishment projects which finally led to the present form as people can see nowadays.
Although both the upper and lower monasteries have a main hall, these two monasteries are in fact interconnected with each other. The main hall of the upper monastery was primarily built in Liao Dynasty and renovated in Jin Dynasty. It is one of the largest Buddha halls of Liao Dynasty which still exists today. There are five Buddhist sculptures each with a lotus flower bottom that standing in a row within the hall. Moreover, another twenty sculptures of gods are in the style of standing bowing to show their respects besides the five main gods. The wall of the hall was decorated with colorful frescos that depict sutra stories. On the other hand, the lower monastery seems to be very simple but elegant when compared with the upper monastery.