Si'en Temple

Si'en Temple

Si'en Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

Si'en Temple is the only monastic ordination site in Guangxi and the largest modern Buddhist temple in South China. Located on the mountainside of Baiyun Mountain, it backs onto the Baiyun Mountain range of the Five Ridges, with the Xijiang River winding like a jade ribbon from the northwest to the southeast not far in front.

The predecessor of Si'en Temple was the Zhizhulin Temple, built in the spring of 1939 in Qianjian, which was relocated to Baiyun Mountain and rebuilt due to the construction of the East Ring Road in Wuzhou...

The temple was relocated to Baiyun Mountain and rebuilt due to the construction of the East Ring Road in Wuzhou. The foundation stone was laid on the sixth day of the eighth lunar month in the Buddhist year 2545 (2001 AD), with a total investment of about 70 million yuan. Master Shichengqing from the Buddhist Association of China was dispatched to Wuzhou to guide the temple’s construction. The grand Mahavira Hall was completed in 2005, and the east and west wing rooms, bell tower, drum tower, memorial archway, mountain gate, Heavenly King Hall, Dharma Hall, vegetarian restaurant, and others will be completed successively. A grand Buddha enshrinement ceremony was held on September 27, 2006.

Zhao Puchu, President of the Buddhist Association of China, inscribed the name “Si'en Temple” for the new temple. The “Four Graces” refer to repaying the fourfold kindness: the grace of parents, all sentient beings, the nation, and the Three Jewels.

Si'en Temple is not only a Buddhist cultural museum with exquisitely carved architecture, but also an architectural art palace. The 16.8-meter-high Mahavira Hall is majestic in scale. The entire ancient architectural complex of Si'en Temple is grand and imposing, conforming to the concepts of yin-yang cosmology and the aesthetic principles of symmetry and stability.

The Mahavira Hall is the main hall where the Buddha is enshrined. “Mahavira” is an honorific title for the Buddha’s moral and spiritual power, specifically referring to the Buddha’s great strength in subduing the “Four Maras”: the Mara of the Five Aggregates, the Mara of Afflictions, the Mara of Death, and the Mara of the Heavenly Gods. In the center of the Mahavira Hall of Si'en Temple are three gilded sandalwood Buddha statues: the central one is Sakyamuni Buddha, sitting in the lotus position with a serene expression, his left hand resting horizontally on his left foot in the “Dhyana Mudra” (meditation gesture), and his right hand raised with fingers curled into a circle in the “Vitarka Mudra” (teaching gesture), depicting the moment when the Buddha is giving a sermon at a Dharma assembly. The Buddha is seated on a lotus (the lotus, which “emerges unstained from the mud,” symbolizes purity and the Pure Land—the purest of Pure Lands being the Western Paradise; the lotus is also a symbol of femininity, representing birth and rebirth). To the left is the elder Kasyapa, forming a fist in respect, and to the right is the younger Ananda, joining his palms together. This has become a fixed architectural form for the Mahavira Hall.