Jade Buddha Temple

Overview
 

Location
Situated in the northwest near the intersection of Anyuan Lu and Jiangning Lu.

History
The temple was built during the reign of Guang Xu, in the Qing Dynasty. At that time, a Huigen monk from Putuo Mountain in Zhejiang province, welcomed five Jade Buddha statues of different sizes from Burma. When he passed Shanghai, he left two jade statues of Sakyamuni, one of which is in a sitting position, and the other reclining. He raised funds and built a monastery to house these two statues in Jiangwan. The monastery was completed in the 8th year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1882AD) which was named after the jade Buddha, and later it was destroyed in the war. In 1918, it was rebuilt at No.170, Anyuan Road. The architecture of the monastery was in the grand style of the Song Dynasty. The monastery has several halls, including the Heavenly King Hall, the Grand Hall, the Reclining Buddha Hall and the Jade Buddha Hall. There are monks living in the monastery. It is also the home of the Shanghai Buddhism Institute. The incense has never ceased to burn there. Many ancient statues, paintings and a set of Buddhist scripture—Dazangjing, printed in the Qing Dynasty (1870 BC) and more than 7,000 Buddhist scriptures are kept in the monastery, representing a major collection of Buddhist scripture. There is also a souvenir shop and vegetarian restaurant within the monastery.
 
Introduction
The temple is an active one, attracting large numbers of visitors, both local and overseas Chinese tourists. There are two precious jade Buddhist statues .The two precious jade Buddhist statues are not only rare cultural relics but also porcelain artworks. Both the Sitting Buddha and the Recumbent Buddha are carved with whole white jade. The sparkling and crystal-clear white jade gives the Buddhas the beauty of sanctity and make them more vivid. The Sitting Buddha is 190 centimeters high and encrusted by the agate and the emerald, portraying the Buddha at the moment of his meditation and enlightenment. The Recumbent Buddha is 96 centimeters long, lying on the right side with the right hand supporting the head and the left hand placing on the left leg, this shape is called the ’lucky repose’. The sedate face shows the peaceful mood of Sakyamuni when he left this world. In the temple there is also another Recumbent Buddha which is four meters long and was brought from Singapore by the tenth abbot of the temple in 1989. Furthermore there are many other ancient paintings and Buddhist scriptures distributed in the different halls of the temple. The Jade Buddha Temple is a good place to go whether you are a Buddhist or not, the peaceful and transcendent atmosphere adds a kind of richness to our busy modern society.

Features
The home of the Shanghai Buddhism Institute