What a place to see – Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai, China
Published by nerdeff in Asia, CONTINENTS, COUNTRIES, China, Relaxing, Shanghai, Sightseeings, TOPICS
In the western part of Shanghai, a very modern and flourishing city, there is a venerable and famous Buddhist temple, Jade Buddha Temple. As with most modern Chinese Buddhist temples, the current temple draws from both the Pure Land and Chan traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. It was founded in 1882 with two jade Buddha statues imported to Shanghai from Burma by sea. These were a sitting Buddha (1.95 metres tall, 3 tonnes), and a smaller reclining Buddha representing Buddha’s death. The temple was destroyed during the revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty. Fortunately the jade Buddha statues were saved and a new temple was built on the present site in 1928. It was named the Jade Buddha Temple. The temple now also contains a much larger reclining Jade Buddha, donated from Singapore, and visitors may mistake this larger sculpture for the original, smaller piece.
At the time emperor Guang Xu in the Qing Dynasty (1875-1908) ruled China, Hui Gen, a Mount Putuo abbot went on a pilgrimage to Tibet via the two famous Chinese mountains Mount Wutai and Mount Emei. First he goes to Tibet and then he contiduen his jorney to Burma. By this time Mr. Chen Jun-Pu, an overseas Chinese resident in Burma, donated five Jade statues of Buddha to Hui Gen, who transported two of them back to Jiang-wan, Shanghai. Here Hui Gen had a temple built with collected from various sorces money, mostly of them donated, and died shortly thereafter. This temple was occupied during the 1911 uprising, and the statues were moved to Maigen Road.
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