Sacred Buddha Tooth Relics and Relics in the World
Famous Chinese Monks Who Viewed The Buddha Tooth
Sacred Buddha Tooth Relics in the World
Other Sacred Relics of the Buddha in the World
Yunju Temple, Beijing
Yunju Temple (simplified Chinese: 云居寺; traditional Chinese: 雲居寺; pinyin: Yúnjū Sì) is located in Fangshan District, 70 kilometers southwest of Beijing.
The temple was first built in the early 7th century. In 616, the first Buddhist stone scripture tablet was made at the temple by a monk named Jingwan. Because there were debates going between Buddhists and Daoists, and Jingwan feared reprisals from Daoists, he decided to carve his scriptures on stone instead of writing them on paper. The work on the stone tablets continued on for more than a thousand years before ending in 1655. The tablets were based on an edition of the Canon of Buddhist Writings put together during the Tang Dynasty as well as a Liao work known as the Qidangcan. In total, 1122 Buddhist scriptures in 3572 volumes were produced at the temple. In the 1930s, a significant portion of the temple was destroyed.
As reported by Xinhua News, 23 June 2000:
"Two relics said to be from body of Sakyamuni, founder of Buddhism, were returned Tuesday to the Beijing Yunju Temple, where they were first found, a temple official said.
The relics were welcomed by 108 monks and more than 400 Buddhists, as they returned from a underground storage room at the Capital Museum.
"I hope the traditional culture can be passed on through viewing the Buddha relics. I hope people's hearts can be purified," said Master Chuan Yin, who hosted the ceremony.
The relics will be exhibited until July 2 in the biggest hall of the temple, built in the Sui Dynasty (581-618).
The relics could be seen in detail via digital pictures on two large screens, said Yun Guirong, director of the administrative office of the temple.
The corn-shaped red Buddha body relics, discovered in the Leiyin Cave of the temple on Nov. 27, 1981, are respected as one of the "three precious" sets of relics in China. The others are Buddha teeth relics in Beijing's Lingguang Monastery and Buddha figure relics in the Famen Temple in Xi'an."
