Banruo Temple

Built in the 1920s, the Banruo Temple (Prajna Temple) covers an area of 10,000 sq. m in the city of Changchun. The gate hall of the temple opens onto a compound which is flanked by bell and drum towers in a unique architectural style. Arrayed on the axial line are the Hall of Deva-kings, the Mahavira Hall, and the Tripitaka Pavilion. A salient feature of this temple is that all its presentations of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and 18 arhats are cast in bronze statues of massive sizes. An exception is the likeness of Guanyin, which is made of porcelain. The statue of Sakyamuni in the Mahavira Hall stands more than three meters tall, and the 18 arhats sitting beside him are one-meter-tall figures.

The ground floor of the two-storied Tripitaka Pavilion is occupied by 1.51-meter-high statues of the Trinity of the West (Amitabha, Guanyin, and Mahasthamaprapta), and against its side walls stand an array of cabinets that contain Buddhist scriptures. The second floor is devoted to a 1.5-m-high silver stupa. The main halls along the axial line are flanked by ancillary halls and monks’ residential quarters. Gazing down at the square of the Banruo Temple is a gigantic milk-white statue of Guanyin in the form of a serene-looking beauty.