South Putuo Temple

South Putuo Temple is a famous ancient temple in Xiamen City. It is located in front of Wulao Mountain. It was firstly established in the early Song Dynasty. In Ming Dynasty, it was enlarged. And it was restored in the early Qing Dynasty. In 1925, the temple set up a Buddhist academy: Minnan Buddhist Academy, which made the temple widely known. A lot of Buddhists visited the temple and the academy in pursuit of sacred Buddhism. After the establishment of the PRC, the temple was restored again. Now it takes on a new look.

The temple faces the south. The main body of the temple is Tianwang Hall, Daxiongbao Hall, Dabei Hall, and Sutra Collection Pavilion. There are many well-known Buddha statues in the halls and the pavilion houses a massive collection of sutra. If you know Chinese, you can read some of them. With a long history, the temple is rich in cultural relics. There is a contribution-recording stele, which was made under administration of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty. The stele is of great historical meaning. Besides, the temple houses many ancient Buddha statues dating from the North Wei, Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasty, and precious old sutras.