Introduction

Xinchang Great Buddha Temple is located in a valley between Nanming Mountain and Shicheng Mountain in Southwest Xinchang County, Shaoxing City. The temple has an excellent reputation in Buddhism field. It used to be a center for Chinese Buddhism research and propaganda. It has a long history. It was built in the East Jin Dynasty, more than 1600 years ago. The records in Biographies of Eminent Monks indicate that in 345 A.D., Tan Guang, an eminent monk, came to Shicheng Mountain to appreciate the rare landscape of east Zhejiang. He lived in a stone chamber and hastily established Yinyue Temple, which was the origin of Xinchang Great Buddha.

The temple is famous for a massive stone statue of the Laughing Buddha. It is inside a cave in Xianji Rock. The statue base is 2.4 meters high, and the main body is 13.2 meters high, 15.9 meters wide. The distance between two knees is 10.6 meters. The ears are longer than 2.7 meters. The Buddha sits with his great hands on his lap, palms upwards. More than 10 people can stand on his hands. The Buddha is considered as the No. 1 Great Buddha in the south of Yangtze River Delta. There is a story about the Buddha statue. It goes that in 486 A.D., there came a monk named Seng Hu in Shicheng Mountain. It is said that Seng Hu often saw Buddha's halo shining in Xianji Rock. Hence, he made up his mind to carve a great Laughing Buddha in the rock. But he only managed to carve the face in his lifetime. He vowed to re-carve the Buddha in his future life, when he was on his deathbed. Then many years later, a monk named Seng Shu continued the carving. But he, too, didn’t finish it. In 507 A.D., an eminent monk named Seng You was appointed to continue the carving. Under his supervision, the Buddha statue was finally carved out in 516. Due to the story, the Laughing Buddha is also called Three Lifetime’s Holy Manifestation.

Besides the famous great Laughing Buddha, the temple has many other attractions including Thousand-Buddha Buddhist Temple, Animal-release Pool, Master Mind’s Memorial Tower, Jujie Rock, and Banruo Valley, etc. Thousand-Buddha Buddhist Temple is named so because there are more than a thousand Buddha statues. Some of them are big while some of them are quite small. The Animal-release Pool is used to release animals. Buddhism promotes Ahimsa. Buddhists believe they do a good deed when they set an animal free instead of killing it. Master Mind’s Memorial Tower is in memory of Zhi Yi, the founder of Tian Tai Zong, a branch of Buddhism, who was granted as Master Mind by Emperor Suiyang Di. Jujie Rock is a 4-meter-high massive stone. In the middle, there is a crack as if the stone was cleaved by a sword. It is said that two divinities sawed the stone with a rope made of straw to inspire people to persist in carving the Laughing Buddha.