Saturday, August 29, 2015

Guangren Lama Temple----- a Royal Tibetan Buddhist Monastery

Located in the north-west City Wall of Xian, Xian Guangren Lama Temple is the only Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Shaanxi Province. Guangren Lama Temple was built in 1705 as a Xanadu for the Grand Lama of the Northwest and Tibet when he passed through Shaanxi along the road to Beijing to meet with the Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It is a nice combination of Han Culture of architecture and the culture of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also a witness to Tibetan and Han nationality's cultural communication and national solidification.
The main architecture, such as the Mahavira Hall, the Sutras Keeping Hall and the Bodhisattva Hall were brand new for they had been rebuilt in 1952. Besides, as it was cited as a National Key Buddhist Monastery by the State Council in 1983, Guangren Lame Temple was underwent extensive repairs again in 2006 and expanded to the present large scale, an area of 2.6 acres. The main architectural features fall into place from south to north as follows: the Mountain Gate, the Devajara Hall, the Mahavira Hall, the One Thousand Buddha Halls and the Sutra Keeping Hall. Besides, on either side of these main halls are some flanking halls, wing-rooms and cross-yards.
The original Mountain Gate had already been destroyed before the rebuild. Carved with beams and beautiful paintings, the new gate looks magnificent. As the entrance door is closed, visitors should enter the temple from the small eastern wicket. Inside the Mountain Gate, there is a Zhao Bi (a stone wall) engraved with the embossments of Buddha and the eighteen arhats. It is a grandiose brick-carved piece of architecture. Round across the Zhao Bi, you will see a tall hexagonal pavilion with an imperial stele of 'The Guangren Lama Temple Stele Erected under the Imperial Order' written by Emperor Kangxi who erected it. There are wells with stone rails on both sides of the stele.
Go out of the pavilion and you will come to the Devajara Hall in which a statue of Thousand-Hand Avalokitesvara on the lotus throne (the supreme one in Shaanxi Province) was placed there after the rebuild. It shimmers from gilding all over the body. The hall is surrounded by a lot of gilded rotational sutra barrels outside. At the back of the Devajara Hall, there is a courtyard in which lies an Eight Diagrams. It can be infused with 54 kilograms of kerosene at a time so that it is lit day and night. Thus it is called 'Ten Thousand Year Lamp'. Then you will see Mahavira Hall behind the lighthouse. Three Buddha statues are worshipped in the Mahavira Hall the Green Tara statue stands in the middle. On its left is the statue of Manjusri and on its right is the statue of Samantabhadra. It is said that all of them were passed down from Tang Dynasty.
Continue to the rear part, you will find the One Thousand Buddhas Hall which was built in 2006. The statue of the Tsong Khapa who founded Gelugpa (a sect of Tibetan Buddhism) is worshipped here. In front of this hall, there is a marble lotus which came down from the Emperor Qianlong period in the Qing Dynasty. Then the Sutras Keeping Hall will come into view when you go out of the One Thousand Buddhas Hall. The reproduction statue of the 12-year-old Buddha Sakyamuni is bestowed in the middle while the statue of Prince Wencheng (a prince who was ordered to marry a minority chieftain in Tang Dynasty) is on the left. 
There are many precious sutras in Sutras Keeping Hall, especially the Qing version of 'Tibetan Ganzhuer Sutra' in 108 volumes and the Ming versions of 'The Heart of Prajna Paraminta Sutra' in 6,600 volumes. There are flanking halls and wing-rooms on both sides of the Mahavira Hall and the Sutras Keeping Hall. The statues of Sykyamuni, Pharma-kaya and medicine's three seniors (three very important medicine men) lie in the east flanking hall while the four-arm Avalokitesvara, Maitreya Buddha and Saghirima are worshipped in the west flanking hall.

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