pilgrimage

11/4 Historic Ordination Platform - Temple

宝华山 隆昌律寺/Baohuashan Longchanglusi

Felt like I was backpacking in Korea visiting ancient Buddhist temples again.  There is a large white Avaloksittvara statue close to the entrance of this temple LongChangSi. From the temples I visited in Korea, many also had large white Buddha or Boddhisattva statues by the entrance.

 

BaoZhi monk founded the LongChangSi over 1500 years ago and at around that period it was considered one of top Vinaya schools from the 480 Sanskrit temples in this area.  This temple became more well known when the abbot was requested to ordain the Emperor Shizong of Qing Dynasty approximately 300 years ago. 

 

A famous one thousand years old ordination platform resides at this temple.  It’s been “remodeled” during the Qing Dynasty, a few centuries back.  It’s one of four in China but considered the most important with monastics coming from as far as India, Thailand, and Japan to perform their ordination.

The pond in the first picture below the statue is an animal release pond, for turtles and fish originally meant for human consumption.

Longchangsi, Baohuashan, Jurong, Jiangsu, China

11/3 Temple of childhood fables & Grand Prayer - JinShangSi

JinShanSi, 金山寺, was built over 1600 years ago.  It was incorporated into an ageless Chinese fable, Legends of the White Snake some times ago.

A White Snake spirit benefited greatly through an accidental and innocent act of a boy called Xu.  Eighteen years later while in her human guise, fate brings them together and they fell in love, married and had a son.  A jealous Turtle spirit witnessed and plotted his sabotage.  While in human guise this Turtle spirit impersonated a JinShanSi Buddhist monk, revealed the true nature of the White Snake to her husband Xu and then eventually imprisoned her in a pagoda in JinShanSi.  But love and perseverance prevailed, White Snake was freed and reunited with her family; the Turtle spirit fled.

But more importantly, 1500 years ago Emperor Wu Di of Liang (considered by some as the Ashoka of China) helped to establish an annual prayer that is called The Grand Prayer (and many variant names like Liberation of Rite of Water and Land), which is practiced today and it all started at JinShanSi.  This prayer is considered as one of the greatest and most powerful and its goal is to invite sentient beings to help other sentient beings less fortunate, from across the realms.

No.62 Jinshan Rd, Runzhou, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China