Donglin Temple
Today we visited this historic temple. Tour brochures invariably highlight the fact that this temple has the world’s tallest Buddha statue on a hill at the back of the temple.
But this is merely a recent 1990s addition.
Donglin Temple is actually a famous temple of Pure Land Buddhism. It is an old temple, founded in 386 AD by Huiyuan, who is credited as one of the founders of Pure Land Buddhism.
During my visit, I can see that Buddhism continues to have many believers in China.
For a history of the spread of Buddhism into China, the best books were written way back in 1959 [The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China by Erik Zurcher] and in 1964 [Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey by Kenneth Chen].
LWH at Mt Lu/Lushan, Jiangxi, 19 April 2026
