The Nanputuo Temple

Our constitution has asked us to uphold the great banners of Denxiaopin’s theoris on building socialism of Chinese characteristics. However today I will bring you into a place with Chinese characteristics, firist of all , what’s the symbol of western? Of course, churches , right. And in China ,temples take an important part as well as churches. But we have’t held our wedding in temples. All right , today we will visit a millennium Nanputuo Buddhist temple. The tranquility and eternal clouds of rising smoke in harmony with piety believers makes this temple dazzling. It attracts a large number of pilgrims at home and abroad. Believe it or not, it’s the richest temple in China. Nanputuo temple locates at the foot of WulaoHills in the south of Xiamen Island, which was first built in Tang dynasty nearly about 1300 years history. I believe all of you have visit many temples, however, any of it is closed to University, not yet, right. It is the only Temple closed to high school. The majestic complex covers an area of 30 thousand square meters. And the main buildings are the Heavenly guardians hall, the hall of the Buddha, the hall of the Goddess of mercy and the Depositary of Buddhist Sutras.

Now we can see seven small white granitic pagodas and two uneven pagodas, right,

they are devoted by Buddhist believers. A pagoda is part of a Buddhist temple complex and is the most important sacred element among the Buddhist structures. It contains sacred relics of a Buddhist and holy Buddhist symbols and scriptures. Why the pagoda plays so important role in Buddhism? After the Nirvana and cremation of Buddha, his ashes are said to have been divided into 84,000 parts, each of which was enshrined in a different part of the East, and a pagoda raised to mark the holy spot. A typical Chinese pagoda has four elements: the underground hall for storing sacred relics and treasures, the platform or foundation of the pagoda, the body, the main part of the pagoda, which may be solid or hollow, on top is a crown decorated with jewels, pearls and vases.

Just follow me to enjoy more. Now the first of the holy halls you see is Heavenly guardians hall, called Tianwangdian in Chinese, in which the statues of the four celestial kings also called the guardians of four quarters stand, two on each side. The

white skinned eastern guardian of the world, Chi-Guo holds a pipa, a four-stringed Chinese lute. The red-skinned western world guardian, GuangMu, holds a snake with his right hand. The blue skinned southern guardian of the world, ZengZhang, carries a sword. The northern guardian of the world is the green-skinned Duo Wen, who holds an umbrella in his right hand. The weapons in their hands in Chinese means literally good weather for crops. The duty to them is to watch over earthly happenings to punish injustice, violence and others and reward virtues. And the fat laughing Buddha, is Maitreya or Mi Lo Fu in Chinese, who is a symbol of harmony, love and joy. His long earlobes are a symbol of great wisdom and human nobility, and the bushy eyebrows indicate happiness and wisdom. Laugh lines is a sign of experience and

great knowledge. Here on my left and right is the bell and drum tower, monks strike the bell in the morning and beat the drum in the afternoon. It is said that the sound of the bell will relieve people from sufferings and bring happiness to them in the following years. And let’s turn back, we can see a youth warrior. His name is WeiTuo, facing the hall. of Buddha. His duty is to protect the Sakyamuni Buddhist doctrine. And the gigantic hall is just the hall of Buddha, also DaXiongBaoDian in Chinese. Quite unique, isn’t it? It is the representative style of the southern part of the Fujian province.The building has three characteristics. First, the building has two stories with traditional Chinese upward curling roof lines, the uptured eaves look like swallows flying high up in the sky. The whole architecture is properly arranged making the hall appear more solemn. Second, it is exquisitely and ingeniously constructed. On the roof and eaves, you can see the colorful design of carps,dragons,phoenixes and legendary figures. They were made of ceranic materials such as mud, sugar and cement. And with the help of the traditional skills in southern part of the province, it will never lose its color in all kinds of weather.Third, the buildings are made from local materials such as granitc and diabase.In the hall, three figures of Buddha are enshrined, Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, Amitabha and Pharmacist Buddha. These three Buddhas represent Buddhism in three different world,the middle ,the erastern and the western worlds.     

And now you can see total 18 statues crowed along the two aisles and passageways of the hall of the Buddha. They are Arhats, known in Chinese as Lohan, are people who have achieved Nirvana. They are usually depicted in groups of 16 or 18, sometimes among as 500 in big temples.

In china, there are statues or painting of Bodhisattvas known as “Pusas”in the great hall. They are saints who gained enlightenment but have come back to the world to help other people attain it too. Now in our Nanputuo temple, there is a favorite bodhisattva of Chinese people who is Guanyin , the Goddess of mercy. The third hall is Great Compassion hall. It’s 20m high, built in an exquisite and grand style with the traditional Chinese upward curving roof lines, looking splendid in green and gold, ingeniously constructed, affording a magnificent view. She is usually behind Sakyamuni, carrying a vase or a child and facing north. The water from the bottle in her hand is what is called the water of mercy. And she is always seen together with a boy names red child, so she is believed to be able to send a boy to any family without

one.

And you can see the craftsmanship bodhisattva has thousands eyes and hands. It means that, only if you are piety, and what you prayed for will become true.

And the depositary of Buddhist sutras is the last one in the temple complexes. In the rear, there are several inscriptions carved on rocks, among them the writing of a big Chinese character “Buddha” with 4 meters height and 3 meters width, has an uninhibited and lively style written by a monk named En Hi in Qing Dynasty.