Xichong Dabei Temple

Xichong Dabei Temple

Xichong Dabei Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

Dabei Temple is located in Dabei Temple Village, Xinnian Township, Xichong County, Sichuan Province. It is 35 kilometers from Xichong County town and 1.5 kilometers from Xinnian Township, adjacent to Nianya Township in the south. The ancient temple lies in the northernmost part of Xichong County. According to surviving inscriptions in the temple, it was first built during the Tianfu period (approximately 902 AD) of Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty, flourished during the Shaoxing period (approximately 1140 AD) of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, experienced subsequent rises and declines, and was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. The name “Dabei Temple” has been marked on historical maps through the ages.

A large statue of “Guanyin Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva Who Hears the Cries of the World and Saves All from Misery” is enshrined in Dabei Temple, hence its name. As Guanyin is highly revered by the Chinese people, the temple enjoys a thriving stream of worshippers. During the chaos at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the thousand-year-old temple and all the Buddha statues were reduced to ashes and destroyed. In the eleventh year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1671), the Mahavira Hall, Guanyin Hall, Ksitigarbha Hall, Medicine Buddha Hall, Heavenly King Hall, the Bell and Drum Towers, as well as the guesthouse, dining hall, and mill room were reconstructed. The temple was grand in scale and majestic in appearance, owning over 80 acres of temple farmland and hosting ten monks. Over the dynasties, many eminent monks emerged here, and high-ranking monks gathered. The abbot of the temple, Master Zhenqing, walked barefoot to the South Sea three times for pilgrimage, and also served as the rear hall master of Chengdu’s Wenshu Monastery. He passed away at the age of 95 at Dabei Temple. His entire body was cremated, and his ashes were placed in a porcelain alms bowl inscribed with twenty characters in Chinese: "The Golden Alms Bowl of the Seventh Patriarch of the Pure Linji Lineage, the Late Venerable Monk Manyi, who Has Entered Nirvana.” His ashes were buried inside a seven-level stupa. During the White Lotus Rebellion around 1797 during the Jiaqing reign, Dabei Temple suffered a devastating fire once again. It was reconstructed during the Guangxu reign (around 1880), but the scale was much smaller than before. The contemporary eminent monk Haishan (secular name Ma Tingyao, a native of Xichong County) became a monk at Dabei Temple at the age of 15 (in 1944), received full monastic precepts and practiced meditation at Wenshu Monastery at the age of 19, and entered the Buddhist Academy of Zhaojue Monastery in Chengdu at the age of 20. During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, he was sent back to his hometown to work. Longing for the Dabei Temple where he had become a monk as a child, he stayed there for several months, chanting devotedly to keep the memory alive, before returning to Zhaojue Monastery. He currently serves as Vice President of the Buddhist Association of Sichuan Province, and is also the abbot of both Wanfo Temple in Deyang and Guangde Temple in Suining.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the ancient Dabei Temple was converted into a school. In August 1999, the religious policy was implemented, and the temple was approved to reopen; the school was relocated elsewhere, and the temple was returned to the Buddhist community. Local devotees contributed money and effort to restore the Mahavira Hall, newly build the Guanyin Hall, the Chanting Hall, the guesthouse, and the dining hall. Eleven jade Buddha statues were purchased and placed in the halls, giving the ancient temple a renewed spirit. The local followers also donated the porcelain urn containing the ashes of Abbot Zhenqing, which had been unearthed, to Dabei Temple. Venerable Renming (secular name Luo Shikui, from Nianya Township, Nanbu County) resided long-term at the temple to develop and rebuild it, enduring many hardships. In April 2002, he was appointed as the abbot of the temple.