|
by A. Van der Braak
Niutou Temple 牛頭寺 is located in Xi'an 西安, in Wei Chu township, on the side of Junlu Hill. During the Tang dynasty, this monastery was described by various poets as an auspicious place. The site contains three cultural artefacts: a 1000 year old Dragon Claw Tree, a 1000 year old Evergreen Fur Tree, and a 5-faced stone carved sutra banner. The monastery is unremarkable apart from one claim to fame: it claims to be associated with the Niutou (oxhead 牛頭) Chan School. According to two Song dynasty sources, the temple was founded in 795, and is named after the Nioutou mountain nearby. This is the theory that contemporary scholarship agrees on. According to the temple's own brochure, however, "it is commonly passed around in the Buddhist world" that the temple was in fact founded in 632. Moreover, it was associated with Chan master Niutou Farong (594-657), a student of the fourth Chan patriarch Dayi Daoxin 道信. Apart from giving dharma transmission to Hongren 弘忍, the fifth Chan patriarch, Daoxin also gave dharma transmission to Farong, who is considered to be the founder of the Niutou Chan lineage. The Niutou school flourished during the seventh and eighth centuries, and continued up until the end of the tenth century (Ferguson, Zen's Chinese Heritage, p. 31-32). According to the temple brochure, Farong came to this temple to teach Daoxuan 道宣, the well known Vinaya master. This story is however highly unlikely since the Niutou school was located in a very different area, southeast of Nanjing, near Dajue Monastery 大覺寺. Farong would have had to travel a very long way to arrive at this monastery. Currently, around 5-6 monks live in the temple. Its dharma hall contains an image from Vairocana Buddha (made in Suzhou 蘇州, it looks like it was built during the last 10 years). On the left side there is an image of Guanyin; in the back there is an image of Farong. The temple also contains a shrine for its former abbot.
Photos:
|
