Tianlong Temple Pagoda Forest

Tianlong Temple Pagoda Forest

The Tianlong Temple Pagoda Forest is a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangsu Province.

The Tianlong Temple Pagoda Forest in Nanjing is the burial site of Master Guxin, the founding patriarch of the revival of the Nanshan Vinaya School of Buddhism, as well as the successive patriarchs of the ancient Gulin Temple and Tianlong Temple. Guxin was the inheritor of the orthodox Nanshan Vinaya lineage of Chinese Buddhism since the Sui and Tang dynasties, and a pioneer in the study of Vinaya during the Ming and Qing dynasties and even into modern times. After Guxin passed away, his full-body stupa was built on Yuhuan Mountain behind Tianlong Temple. Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty personally inscribed a eulogy: “Behold his visage, know the man; in samadhi he dwells, detached from the six dusts; of old, Bhāradvāja, today, Guxin.” Master Guxin played an indispensable role in the revival of the Buddhist Vinaya School.

Tianlong Temple was first built in the early Ming Dynasty and was originally named Jile An (Temple of Supreme Joy). During the Xuande era of the Ming Dynasty, the temple monk Hongsheng petitioned for an imperial plaque and the temple was renamed “Tianlong Jile Si” (Tianlong Temple of Supreme Joy). According to the temple registry dated July 26, 1736 (the first year of the Qianlong reign in the Qing Dynasty), among the 12 temples under the jurisdiction of Jiangning, Tianlong Temple ranked third. The temple originally had structures such as the Vajra Hall, Heavenly King Hall, Buddha Hall, and Vairocana Pavilion, covering a foundation area of 1,200 square meters, with over 13,000 square meters of fields, land, and ponds.

Most of the stupas in the Tianlong Temple Pagoda Forest are carved from stone in four or six sides, consisting of a base, pedestal, body, and top, all meticulously sculpted and assembled with mortise and tenon joints. The stone carvings of flowers, animals, and patterns are all exquisite high-relief works, featuring lively and natural lines, and a delicate, unrestrained style. They serve as excellent physical materials for the study of Ming and Qing carving art. There were originally more than 50 stone stupas here, but after generations of warfare, only eight inscribed stupa bodies remain. Six tomb stupas have now been re-erected.

On Yuhuan Mountain where the Tianlong Temple Pagoda Forest is located, the foundational remnants of the stupa courtyard walls can still be faintly seen. Guxin’s Stupa faces west and is situated eastward, taking the form of an armchair following the mountain terrain, with the successive patriarchs’ stupas of Gulin Temple arranged in an inverted “eight” shape in front. Slightly to the south are the successive patriarchs’ stupas of Tianlong Temple. To the west of the pagoda forest, descending several stone steps, there is a rectangular platform of about several hundred square meters, where stone pagodas used for ancestral worship in the Buddhist community were originally arranged—now overgrown with lush bamboo. West of the platform lies the site of Tianlong Temple, where vertical drops of over two meters reveal ruins with broken walls and ancient traces.

On December 19, 2011, the People's Government of Jiangsu Province designated it as a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit in the seventh batch.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relic Protection Units