About RFIG
What is RFIG?
When you walk into a Chinese temple, the figures on the altar are not placed randomly.
A deity in the centre. Another to the side. A smaller one in front. A larger one behind.
These arrangements carry meaning.
They tell you what each deity does for the community, and how the figures relate to one another.
RFIG — short for Relational–Functional Iconographic Grammar — is a way of reading these arrangements.
Think of it like reading a sentence:
- The altar is the sentence
- The deities are the words
- Their placement is the grammar
You do not need to learn RFIG to use this site.
But if you have ever stood before an altar and wondered why the figures are arranged the way they are — this page is for you.
Who is this framework for?
The framework is used by two kinds of visitors:
- Curious visitors who want to understand what they are seeing inside a temple
- Researchers who need a systematic way to document and compare altar arrangements across temples
A quick example
Here is the Hall of Great Compassion at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery in Singapore.
In the centre: Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. On either side: Skanda and Sangharama, protective figures.
The two side figures are smaller, and they face inward toward the centre.
Using RFIG, we describe this as:
- Avalokiteśvara is central, large, front-facing. She is the focus of the altar. People pray to her.
- Skanda and Sangharama are on the sides, smaller, inward-facing. They protect the central figure.
- Together, the two side figures flank Avalokiteśvara — that means they stand on either side as her attendants.
That is the basic idea of RFIG. The rest of this page explains the terms in more detail.
The Basic Ideas
1. Icons
An icon is a single deity figure — a statue, image, or representation.
Each icon can be described by four features:
Which way it faces — toward you, toward the centre, away, sideways
What it does — protects, teaches, intercedes, commemorates
Where it sits — central, to the side, raised up, set back
How big it is — the largest, equal to others, smaller, or alone
2. Relations
A relation describes how two icons relate to one another.
The most common ones:
- Flanks — stands on either side of (Guan Gong and Skanda flank Avalokiteśvara)
- Centers — is the focus that others arrange around
- Surmounts — is placed higher on a tiered altar
- Guards — protects from external threat
- Mirrors — is a symmetric counterpart on the opposite side
More relations exist — they appear in the For Researchers section below.
3. Scope
A relation holds at a specific scale, called its scope. The same two deities can stand in different relations at different scopes.
The four scopes:
Altar — what you see on a single altar table
Shrine — a whole hall or room
Compound — the whole temple site
Complex — clusters of related temples
Seeing it in a temple
The best way to understand RFIG is to walk through a temple with it. Let’s take Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery temple compound in Singapore. We will look at three areas: the Hall of the Celestial Kings, the Mahavira Hall, and the Bell Tower and Drum Tower.
At the Hall of the Celestial Kings
When you step through the entrance, you meet:
The Four Celestial Kings, two on each side, large and armoured
Maitreya Buddha, seated in the centre, smiling
Skanda, standing immediately behind him on the same altar
In RFIG terms:
- Skanda stands behind Maitreya rather than beside him — a different kind of placement.
- Maitreya centers the hall — he is the focus.
- The Four Celestial Kings guard the central space — their armour and weapons make this visible.
Worth noticing: the Celestial Kings are bigger than Maitreya. But in terms of role, they are subordinate to him. Bigger does not mean more important. This is one of the most important things to remember when reading altars.
At the Bell Tower and Drum Tower
Just past the Hall of the Celestial Kings, two small towers stand on either side of the path that leads to the main hall.
The one on your left is the Drum Tower (鼓楼). The one on your right is the Drum Bell Tower (钟楼).
Inside each tower, a deity is housed.
The Drum Tower holds Sangharama Bodhisattva, the protector of the monastery. Here he takes the form of Guan Gong (关公) — the famous general from Chinese history, who has been adopted into the Buddhist tradition as a temple guardian.
The Bell Tower holds Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva who vowed to save beings from the lower realms — the hells, the realms of suffering.
Worth noticing: the two towers are the same size, the same shape, on opposite sides of the path. This is a pair.
The bell calls people to practice. The drum keeps time and marks the hours.
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva reaches down into the realms of suffering. Sangharama Bodhisattva guards outward against harm. Together they cover the two directions that a monastery’s care needs to extend.
In RFIG terms:
- Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva and Sangharama Bodhisattva serve different functions, but the pair works as a single unit. Removing one would break the symmetry.
- The two towers mirror each other — they are symmetric counterparts on either side of the central path.
One small thing worth knowing: the Sangharama in the Drum Tower is also Guan Gong. The same statue is both at once. This is common in Chinese temples — figures from one tradition (here, a folk-religious hero) are sometimes adopted into another tradition (Buddhism) where they take on a new role. RFIG calls this substitutes.
At the Mahavira Hall
Past the entrance hall is the Mahavira Hall — the heart of the temple.
Inside you see:
Avalokiteśvara, behind the main altar — facing the rear of the hall, not the front
Three Buddhas, from Amitabha Buddha on the left, to Shakyamuni Buddha at the centre, and Bhaṣajyaguru Buddha on the right, side by side, facing forward
Two attendant disciples flanking Shakyamuni Buddha, Venerable Ananda on his left and Venerable Mahākāśyapa on his right
In RFIG terms:
- The three Buddhas share the central axis — they are equally important.
- The disciples flank their respective Buddhas — they attend.
- Avalokiteśvara at the rear is facing the opposite direction — a deliberate choice. Walking around the altar reveals her.
Worth noticing: the same hall holds two different scenes. The front-facing one is for visitors arriving from the entrance. The rear-facing Avalokiteśvara is for visitors who walk all the way around.
Two scenes. One hall. RFIG can describe both.
What you can do with this
The next time you visit a Chinese temple, try the same approach.
Pause at each major area. Ask yourself:
- Who is at the centre?
- Who is on the sides?
- Which way are they facing?
- What does the size tell you — and what does it not tell you?
You do not need to remember all the RFIG terms. The four questions above will take you a long way.
Suggested citation (APA format)
Sam, A. L. Y. (2026). Relational–Functional Iconographic Grammar (RFIG): A framework for documenting iconographic configurations in Chinese religious sites. My Temple Buddy. https://mytemplebuddy.com/guidelines/
