Quanzhou Sakyamuni Temple

Quanzhou Sakyamuni Temple

Quanzhou Sakyamuni Temple is a cultural heritage protection unit in Quanzhou City.

Sakyamuni Temple is located on the east side of the southern section of Donglu Lane in Licheng District. It was designated as part of the fourth batch of cultural heritage protection units in Quanzhou City in March 1998.

The original site of the temple was once part of the study room of Pu Shougeng from the Yuan Dynasty. After the transition from the Yuan to the Ming Dynasty, it was transformed into a small nunnery. During the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty (1573–1620), the daughter of Grand Secretary Li Tingji was engaged but not yet married when her fiancé passed away. She resolved to become a nun, so Li Tingji had a residence built for her and expanded it with a Buddha hall, dining hall, and more, giving Sakyamuni Temple its initial form.

The temple traces its lineage to the Linji school of the Maitreya Rock at Qingyuan Mountain. During the Qing Qianlong era (1736–1795), Tonghua, the revitalizing patriarch of Maitreya Rock, sent disciples to expand the site, establishing it as a place for teaching Buddhism and accommodating lay monastics, thus giving it a structure similar to modern lay Buddhist associations. In the Yongzheng era of the Qing Dynasty (1723–1735), Shi Jimei, a descendant of the former Sri Lankan prince Sangili Bowattu Rajasinha, purchased houses, land, fields, and ponds as temple property. Two such contracts are still preserved at Sakyamuni Temple. Qing Dynasty censors such as Chen Qingyong, as well as military governors and prefects, successively inscribed plaques and composed couplets for the temple.

The temple was renovated and rebuilt in 1989. Facing west, Sakyamuni Temple consists of a front courtyard, front hall, and main hall. The main hall features a hip-and-gable roof style. Behind the main hall, on the north side of the rear hall, are the Merit Hall and side rooms, with the Fuyuan Hall further north. The front section of the temple is 14.3 meters wide, the rear section 20 meters, with a depth of 44.75 meters, covering an area of approximately 760 square meters.

The temple enshrines the Sakyamuni Buddha. Among them is a 10-centimeter-tall bronze statue of Sakyamuni in a meditative sitting posture, crafted during the Five Dynasties period. The temple also houses a complete set of the "Wan" character edition of the Buddhist canon and a Song Dynasty edition printed in the Yuan Dynasty of the "Dayun Sutra" (both currently stored in the scripture depository of Quanzhou Kaiyuan Temple). Originally, there were also four sets of Qing Dynasty woodblocks, each with four volumes, which were lost during the Cultural Revolution.

During the Qing Dynasty, Sakyamuni Temple established branches in Hui’an Sakyamuni Temple, Quanzhou Suyan Temple, Jinjiang Fu’an Temple, Qinglian Temple, and later in Jinjiang Duolian Temple, Quanzhou Tianlian Hall, and Suyan Temple in the Philippines, making it the ancestral temple of these over ten temples.

(Source: Quanzhou History Network)