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The Yufo Temple in Shanghai is famous for its two jade Buddhas--one seated and one reclining--brought from Burma by founding abbot Huigen after a visit to Burma around 1880. (Yufo means "Jade Buddha.") The temple also has many other fine figures, including this jade one of Guanyin.

submitted 21 hours ago • 0 comments

The ancient-looking Haoshang Bridge--considered one of China's most beautiful--was actually built in 1976. The funds were raised by the abbot of Wuyou Temple to join that temple's river island to the mainland where the Great Buddha of Leshan is located, increasing the temple's tourism traffic.

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An ordination platform at Longchang Temple in Jurong, Jiangsu. Monks have "shaved" here since the ornate stone dais was designed in 1705. It stands in a hall of its own, with a courtyard to accommodate crowds. One source says that in a single ceremony in 1900, over 1,200 monks were ordained!

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The great friends Hanshan and Shide are seen on an altar at busy Hanshan Temple in Suzhou, Jiangsu, where tradition says they lived. "Cold Mountain" was a poet whose work is still celebrated; Gary Snyder and Red Pine did excellent modern translations of his work. Shide ("Foundling") was also a poet.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Not quite as impressive as its more famous, larger neighbor, still the Small Wild Goose Pagoda at Xiaoyan Temple in Xi'an, Shaanxi, has its own charm. Here I shot it from outside the closed grounds on a misty morning.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

These Twin Pagodas are one of two famous pairs in Kunming, Yunnan, China. They are all that's left of Dade Temple. Dating to 1477, they now stand in a tiny courtyard squeezed between buildings that appear to be a government office and an apartment building or dormitory built in the 1980s.

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These steles stand in front of a hall at Guangji Temple, Beijing.

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The Guanyin standing in the first courtyard at Bore (or Banruo) Temple in Changchun, Jilin, was a common sight in the temples I visited in northeastern China. The temple's variously-pronounced name is a Chinese approximation of the Sanskrit word "prajna" meaning "wisdom" or "insight."

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The ancient five-arched bridge and the Xumi Fushou Temple in the Qings' Chengde Mountain Resort, Hebei, were built in 1780 to celebrate the 70th birthday of the great Buddhist patron Emperor Qianlong. "Xumi" is a transliteration of Mount Sumeru's name; "Fushou" means "long happy life."

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Inside this delicate pavilion at Caotang Temple, Xi'an, Shaanxi, is a small pagoda that holds a relic said to be the tongue of Kumarajiva (344–413). Born in the Kucha (now part of Western Xinjiang, China), Kumarajiva is considered one of Chinese Buddhism's greatest Sanskrit-to-Chinese translators.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

The Main Hall at Qiyun Temple, Fu'an, Fujian, where my friend Venerable Deru lives. He drove me to Huayan Temple on Zhiti Mountain in Ningde and to a half-dozen temples in Fu'an, including this one. I didn't get to see the interior of the hall as the evening service was in progress.

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Colossal Vairochana Buddha at Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan. It's said that this is the face of Wu Zetian, the empress who paid for much of the carving. The image, sometimes called the "Chinese Mona Lisa," was carved in 676. Just the ears are two meters long!

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This altar at Fozu Temple, Shenzhen, Guangdong, is transitioning from Daoist to Buddhist; three Buddha statues sit in front of a Daoist figure. This temple sits right outside the gate of the school where I taught, and I could always tell when it was new or full moon by looking at their parking lot.

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This carving is in native rock inside the main hall at Chaoyang Nunnery on Jiuhuashan, Anhui. "华佛普照" might be read something like, "The splendid Buddha shines everywhere." The second character is unusual; the phrase is more often seen as "华光普照," perhaps "Splendid Light Shines Everywhere."

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A large elephant statue at Zhantanlin Temple on Jiuhuashan, Anhui. In the Buddhist context elephants may symbolize strength, patience, loyalty and wisdom. The Buddha's mother dreamed of a white elephant before his birth; and he tamed the wild elephant Nalagiri, set on him by his cousin Devadatta.

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The Nine Dragon Spring at Nanhua Temple in Shaoguan, Guangdong. Legend says it was created when Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan (Zen), tapped the ground nine times with his staff; nine dragons (like the nine that bathed the newborn Shakyamuni) flew out of the ground and the spring began to run.

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Hongshan Pagoda (completed in 1291) on the mountain behind Baotong Temple, Wuhan, Hubei, was built in memory of the Tang Dynasty Chan Master Ciren Lingji, founding monk of the temple and a direct disciple of the great Master Mazu Daoyi. Legend says Ciren could call down rain in times of drought.

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This manly old man seated on a banana leaf is typical of the unusual set of Arhats at Fuyan Temple, Nanyue, Hunan. Vanavasin (or Vanavasa) is called Bajiao Luohan in Chinese, the "Banana Arhat." Some say he was born under a banana tree; others that he achieved enlightenment under one.

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The main hall at Dailuo Ding ("Black Conch [or Snail] Peak") on Wutai Shan, Shanxi, China, is nestled among evergreens. The temple also features a Hall of Manjushri of Five Directions, with five statues of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom (to which the entire mountain is dedicated).

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

What appears to be three "Thousand-Armed Guanyins" at Chongshan Temple, Taiyuan, Shanxi, is actually one Guanyin (center) with a Thousand-Armed Puxian (Samantabhadra) and a Thousand-Armed (and Bowled) Wenshu (Manjushri) on either side. I have never seen these two portrayed this way at other temples.

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This Vairochana ("Great Sun") Buddha and the two bodhisattvas at his sides are located in the uppermost hall at Lingyin Si in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, the first "official" temple I visited of the 142 Key Temples in the Han area of China.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

The Nantian Men, the "Gate of the Southern Heaven" on Putuoshan in Zhejiang, is a natural gateway made of two standing stones with one across the top. These lead into the precincts of a very small temple, Daguanpeng.

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Mingjiao Temple, Hefei, Anhui is built on a platform which was once used by the 2nd-3rd century general Cao Cao (who much later became famous as a major character in the book "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms") for reviewing his troops. It now stands on a pedestrian street in a busy shopping area.

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The Ascetic Shakyamuni at Baoguang Temple, Chengdu, Sichuan, is a carved panel showing the Buddha-to-be when he mistakenly thought that mortifying the body would lead to enlightenment. He later realized that the truth lay in "the Middle Way" between asceticism and luxury. ("hand" colored)

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This kitschy statue of Maitreya Bodhisattva--the so-called "Laughing Buddha"--is seated in front of the base of the huge pagoda at Tianning Temple in Changzhou, Jiangsu. Opened in 2007, the pagoda stands at 505 feet (153.79 meters), and is said to be the tallest pagoda in the world.

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The newish halls at Qita ("Seven Pagoda") Temple in Ningbo, Zhejiang, are a pleasing combination of gray brick and light wood. Destroyed and rebuilt many times in its nearly 1200-years, its current halls were built or restored in the 1990s, after being badly damaged during the Cultural Revolution.

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The unusually-shaped Haibaota Temple is in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, located on the edge of one of China's great deserts. The name, then, meaning "Sea Treasure Pagoda," may be ironic. The eleven-story pagoda stands 177 feet (54 meters) tall; the date of its construction is uncertain.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Kunming, Yunnan, features two sets of Twin Pagodas that have "lost" their temples. One pair was at Dade Temple. The one shown here was at "East Temple" (its twin was at "West Temple"), and is graced by a riot of purple flowers. Dongsi Ta and Xisi Ta were built in the late 8th or early 9th century.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Hall roof at the former Sheng'an Temple, Beijing. Only the temple gate, the Heavenly Kings Hall, and an "ancillary" hall remain; the main and rear halls are gone. After liberation it became a primary school, and suffered serious damage during the Cultural Revolution. A pavilion was moved to a park.

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The roof ridge figures at Guanyin Gucha in Jilin City, Jilin, are more uniform than the ones at most other temples. The "cha" in this temple's name (yet another word for "temple") is a shortened form of "chaduoluo" (剎多羅), transliterated from the Sanskrit word "kshetra," meaning "a field."

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The Liuhe Pagoda (so-called for its prototype in Hangzhou) is all that remains from the time of the Qianlong Emperor at Yongyou Temple, Chengde, Hebei. It stands on what was once the grounds of the Qing emperors' summer retreat; I photographed it from outside of the walls.

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Zhizhe Tayuan is a small hall on Tiantai Shan housing a pagoda with the remains of Zhiyi, founder of Tiantai Buddhism. It lies in the mountains about five miles (8 km) north of Gaoming Temple, which was founded by Zhiyi (also called Tiantai Dashi and Zhizhe, "Wise One"), in the 6th century.

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When I visited Yuquan Temple in Dangyang, Hubei, in August of 2012, they were replacing the Arhats in the 500 Arhats Hall. The discarded statues were placed in hallways; this group looks for all the word like they're riding in a big bobsled!

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

The Jade Buddha in a spectacular setting on the main altar at Tiantang Temple on Tianma Mountain, Fu'an, Fujian. I was told by the monk who brought me there that the characters on the wall behind are "a sutra," but he didn't say which one.

submitted 33 days ago • 1 comment

Bronze Shakyamuni Buddha at Xiangshan Temple, Luoyang, Henan, near the Longmen Grottoes. This is a reconstruction of a famous ancient temple--but the reconstruction dates to the Qing dynasty! (Most of it is much newer, however). It's across the river from the majority of the grottoes at Longmen.

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Two of the 500 arhats after which Luohan (Arhat) Temple in Chongqing was named. They are all exquisite. The first time I visited, in 2007, the hall was closed for refurbishment. I visited again in 2012, when these guys were about five years old.

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The doorway was all I saw of this "ancient cave" called Changsheng Gudong (长生古洞) as I trudged down from Tiantai Temple on Jiuhuashan, Anhui. I passed (but did not enter) around a half-dozen small establishments, many of them nunneries, on the four to five kilometer trek.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Two monks chat in the second-floor window of the 500 Arhats' Hall at Baisuigong Temple on Jiuhuashan, Anhui. The temple is said to have been home to a monk that lived to be 126! Hence the name, which means "100 Year Palace."

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These stairs lead up to Zhaoyin Temple in Shaoguan, Guangdong, located in an open-faced cave at the top. It lies in a cliff on the side of Lion's Crag, where the Maba Man Site (300,000 to 130,000 bp) was found. It is speculated that Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, may have meditated here.

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

Instead of being portrayed as statuary, the 500 arhats at Zhusheng Temple, Nanyue, Hunan, are displayed on 250 plaques, two to a plaque. Not unique, but unusual. (The first images of the 16 arhats, "Luohans in a dream," were also created in 2D by the Chengdu-based monk Guanxiu in 891 CE.)

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

The front gate of Shifang Tang on Wutai Shan, Shanxi, a temple in the Tibetan tradition. The two deer facing the dharma wheel above the gate represent the Buddha's first sermon, called "The Turning of the Wheel of Dharma," given at the Deer Park in Sarnath.

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

The Twin Pagodas ("Shuang Ta") are at now-secularized Yongzuo ("Eternal Blessing") Temple, Taiyuan, Shanxi. Built in 1599 and 1609, each exceeds 54 meters in height. They are named Xuanwen ("declaring culture") and Wenfeng ("culture peak"), and are constructed of brick carved to appear like wood.

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

Ji Gong is seen here standing behind the Vairocana Buddha in the Main Hall at Jingci Temple in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. He managed to get kicked out of nearby Lingyin Temple (for his unruly behavior) and ended up spending time here.

submitted 42 days ago • 0 comments

Daguanpeng (Grand View Pavilion) is inside the Nantian Men (South Heaven Gate) on Putuoshan in Zhejiang. It's an interesting example of how a temple can be fitted into the natural landscape of the rocky seacoast, with its courtyard squeezed between boulders (and a "grand view" indeed out the gate).

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

When we went to Wolong Temple in Xi'an, Shaanxi (in August, 2009), the figures in the main hall, including the 24 Deva Kings, were new and still being finished. I used to complain about finding temples under repair; I learned to see them as examples of impermanence. And "history in the making"!

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Kshitigarbha is the Bodhisattva who promises to save all beings from the six Hells. In 2010 when this photo was taken, this was one of the few properly Buddhist statues at Dongshan Temple, in Shenzhen, Guangdong, which was being converted from a Taoist temple into a major Buddhist one.

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The main compound seen from the top of the pagoda at Gaomin Temple, Yangzhou, Jiangsu. A young Canadian-Chinese monk I met on the bus lived there, and obtained permission for us to climb. (After such a kindness, how could I tell him: I hate stairs! But the views were spectacular.)

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments