South Putuo Temple

South Putuo Temple is an ancient temple with great fame in Xiamen. It has the name of Southern Putuo for the reason of its main conformity to Guanyin and Bodhisattva as well as its location to the south of Putuo Mountain, one of the four great Buddhist fields in Zhoushan of Zhejiang province.

Southern Putuo temple has a grand scale with a total area of 25.8 hectares and a building area of 21270 square meters. Sitting on the principal axis from the south to the north are the Hall of Heavenly Kings, the Precious Hall of Great Hero, the Hall of Great Mercy and the Buddhist Scripture Garret. There are annexes on both sides of the axis, such as corridors, Bell and Drum Towers, Haihui Hall, Puzhao Hall, Taixu library, classrooms of the Buddhist Institute, and so on. All these buildings are spread over a mountain slop of complicated topography with a generally solemn and magnificent atmosphere.
Over the recent years, to the south of the Hall of Heavenly Kings lie the Free Life Pond, two newly built Longevity Towers, two pavilions and a lotus pond, etc. Between the two ponds is the Seven Buddha Tower, which is composed of seven statues of Buddha, such as Sakyamuni and Kasyapa. The Longevity Towers have 11 layers in the style of Buddhist buildings of South Asia, enriching the scenery of South Putuo Temple.

There is the Buddhist Institute of South Fujian in the temple, the earliest Buddhist institute in our country, which is established in 1925. The Buddhist institute ran the school again in 1985, establishing the Yangzheng College, the preparatory class, the formal class of two-year system. It also set additional a two-year research class, exerting an extensive influence at home and Southeast Asia.

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