Donglin Temple (Jiujiang)

Donglin Temple
Donglin Temple
东林寺
	Huiyuan
Date established	386
Website
	lsdls.cn

Donglin Temple (

Huiyuan, founder of the Pure Land Buddhism, it is well known for how long it has stood without collapsing.^[1]^[2]

In the Tang dynasty, Jianzhen made several trips to Japan for the mission of preaching Buddhism. As a result, Huiyuan and the doctrine of Donglin Temple began to spread in Japan. Donglin Temple made contributions to improve cultural exchanges and friendly visits between China and Nepal, India, Japan.^[3]

The monastery reached its peak of influence during the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), but was severely damaged during the Taiping Rebellion and was almost destroyed during the Republican period (1912–1949) of Chinese history.^[2]

History

Eastern Jin dynasty

Donglin Temple was originally built as "Longquan Jingshe" (龙泉精舍) in 386 by a prominent Buddhist monk named

White Lotus Society (白莲社), a community gathered 123 Chinese and foreign monks and scholars. Indian Buddhist monks Tanmoti (昙摩提) and Sengjia Tipo (僧加提婆) also delivered Buddhism at that time. ^[4]

Tang dynasty

The temple experienced unprecedented growth during the

sutras and precepts in the temple before going to Japan. In 753, in the 12th year of Tianbao period, Zhi'en (智恩), a monk in Donglin Temple, arrived in Japan with Jianzhen.^[4]

Structures

Guest houses

Guest houses are provided free of charge for tourists for living there up to three days. Like monastic living, they are sex segregated and rooms have to be shared.

Big Buddha of Donglin

After decades long donation campaign, the temple built a 48-metre (157 ft) tall statue of the buddha Amitābha surrounded by an 80-metre (260 ft)-tall flame sculpture.

Public Access

Unlike many tourist sites in China, visitors are not required to buy any tickets in this temple. On the contrary, tourists can have free vegetarian meals together with monks (at 6:00–6:30, 11:00–11:30, 17:00–17:30) after joining their religious nianfo exercises.