Temple of Great Compassion at New Year's Day

The Temple of Great Compassion or Dabei Yuan () is a

Chan Buddhist Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and So ...

temple in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

, China.

Background

The monastery was first built during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

, but has been heavily rebuilt and renovated since and consists now of the West Monastery from 1669 and the East Monastery from 1940 and is the largest and oldest one in the town. The temple covers an area of 10,600 m² (114,000 ft²). The temple also houses the Tianjin Buddhist Institute, which exhibits quite many ancient statues. The Dabei Buddhist Monastery is made up of two parts: old monastery and new monastery.

Old and new

The old monastery refers to the three great halls in the west yard. The construction of the old monastery was started in the beginning of the Qing dynasty and was renovated in the eighth year of the reign of the

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to ...

in the Qing dynasty. The east yard features the new monasteries. The statue of

Sakyamuni Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

oblated in the Daxiong Palace from the east yard was created during the Qing dynasty. The whole Sakyamuni statue is 7 meters high, 6 tons in weight, with 9,999 small Buddhas carved on its

lotus throne In Asian art a lotus throne, sometimes lotus platform, is a stylized lotus flower used as the seat or base for a figure. It is the normal pedestal for divine figures in Buddhist art and Hindu art, and often seen in Jain art. Originating in In ...

. Inside the Great Compassion hall is a 3.6 meters high mud statue of the Thousand-hand Kwan-yin is oblated.

Xuanzang

The monastery was once famous for holding a skull relic of

Xuanzang Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...

who died in 664, however, the relic was presented to India in 1956 when it was taken to Nalanda - allegedly by the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...

- and presented to India. The relic is now in the

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

museum. And from then on, the Great Compassion monastery uses the image of the Xuanzang master instead of his spirit bones for worshiping the Buddha. There are memorials for the Buddhist monks Xuanzang and Hong Yi in the east yard, while the west yard has become an office for the Cultural Relic Palace, Abbot Palace and Chinese Buddhism Association Tianjin Branch. In the Cultural Relic Palace of the west yard, there are many collections from every dynasties since the Wei and Jin period including hundreds of Buddha statues which are made of various materials like bronze, iron, stone and wood.

Cultural value

The cultural value of the temple concentrates on its mural art and its central status of local culture.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple Of Great Compassion Buddhist temples in Tianjin Buddhist vegetarianism Chan temples