Jade Buddha Temple

Located at the crossing of Anyuan Road and Jiangning Road, the Jade Buddha Temple is well known both in China and in Southeast Asia. In the temple, two Jade Buddha statues are enshrined. There goes such a story: In the early years of the reign of Emperor Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, an eminent monk called Huigen from Mount Putuo (in Zhejiang Province) went on a pilgrimage to India. He passed through Tibet and Burma. It is said that he was honored with five statues of Sakyamuni. On his way back in 1875, he passed Shanghai, and left behind two of the five statues; one was 1.9 m tall, in a sitting posture, and the other one-meter long, in a reclining posture. In order to enshrine the two statues, a temple was built. At first the temple was located in Jiangwan area. During the 1911 Revolution, the original temple was deserted and a new temple was planned in 1918. The construction was completed 10 years later. The temple, a structure in palatial style of Song Dynasty, looks magnificent and is compact in architecture. The sitting jade statue was inlaid with such precious stones as agate, emerald, and jadeite, making it a rare masterpiece.