Qianjiang Grand Buddha Temple

　　    The Grand Buddha Temple is located at Huiguang Neighborhood Committee, Yuanyi Town, Qianjiang City, Hubei Province. Among the temples in the Qianjiang area, situated in the heart of the Jianghan Plain, it boasts a long history. There are three different accounts in local historical records regarding its founding date: the first states that it was established during

　　    the “Tai Ding era of the Yuan Dynasty” (1324–1327 AD), the second says a thatched hut was built in the “first year of the Wu regime” (the first year of Wu was 1367 AD, the 27th year of the Zhi Zheng era of the Yuan Dynasty), and the third cites the *Record of the Grand Buddha Temple* by Wang Qian, an official of the Taichang Temple in the Ming Dynasty, which states that

　　    “since the Han and Tang dynasties it has been a distinguished monastic site, and was renamed the Grand Buddha Temple when Master Yougu, its founding monk, first came here.”

　　     Over the course of dynastic rises and falls, from September 1997 to 2005, the Qianjiang Municipal Government, the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, and other organizations successively planned and reconstructed a series of main structures. The temple’s reconstruction and fundraising efforts were specifically carried out by Venerable Cixin, a disciple dispatched by Venerable Dayue, who was appointed by the Standing Council of the Buddhist Association of China, Vice President of the Buddhist Association of Hunan Province, and abbot of Fuyan Temple—the foremost ancient temple on Mount Hengshan in Nanyue, Hunan.

　　    (Continued from previous segment)

　　     At present, the Qianjiang Grand Buddha Temple has once again become one of the important centers for Buddhist activities in the Jianghan Plain and the Qianjiang area.