by Noga Ganany

Chong-shan temple is situated in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province in northern China. Zhu Gang (1358-1398), the third son of emperor Taizu (Zhu Yuan-zhang), founder of the Ming dynasty, established this temple on the remains of a Tang dynasty temple called Baima si, in the late fourteenth century for the memory of his mother, the Empress Ma (1332-1382). The original temple was forty times larger that the remaining structure. During the Ming dynasty it was situated in the outskirts of the city, whereas today it is engulfed by residence buildings of Taiyuan city.

The name of the temple was altered several times during the last few centuries. It was once called “Hall of Great Compassion”, and was later renamed Chong-shan si when it was reconstructed during the Ming.

The current main hall was not the main hall of the original temple when it was first erected. It contains three 8.2 meters tall clay statues of the bodhisattvas Avalokitesvara (Guan-yin), Manjusri (Wenshu) and Samantabhadra (Puxian), dating back to the early fourteenth century. Not only Guan-yin but all three figures have a thousand hands, which is a unique feature of this temple. A new statue of Buddha, made of white ceramics, is situated in front of the three bodhisattvas. On both sides of the three clay bodhisattvas stand smaller statues of Zhun-ti-fa bodhisattva and Di-zang-wang bodhisattva. To the left stands a statue of the popular god Guan-gong.

A remarkable scroll of the Hua-yan jing lies on the right side of the main hall. It was written by the monk Jing-jie during the Ming dynasty, using his own blood as ink. This enterprise of devoutness was completed in no less than twelve years. On the left side of the hall lie a Tibetan scroll of the Zang-wen jing, which arrived from Japan in 1973, and a Chinese scroll of the Zhong-hua da-zang jing, which arrived in 1983.

On both sides of the courtyard in front of the main hall stand a drum tower and a bell tower, also originally from the early Ming dynasty.

At the moment twenty-one monks reside in this temple. A new section of the temple is currently under construction, and it appears that the temple would double its size in the near future. According to the residing monks, the temple does not have a meditation hall; each monk meditates in his own room by himself.

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