Posted 2016/9/9
Located at the foot of Emei Mountain in Sichuan Province, Baoguo Monastery is the biggest monastery of the mountain and was first built in the Ming Dynasty. It was originally called “Huizong Hall”, which means Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism are combined as one.
The grand Baoguo Monastery covers an area of nearly 40,000 sq. meters. There are four large halls in total. They are (from the front to the back): Maitreya Hall, the Grand Hall, Seven-Buddha Hall and Buddhist Sutra Storing Tower. The four halls are built near the mountain, with one layer higher than the other. The doors and windows of the monastery are carved with intricate patterns that are lifelike and magnificent. The towers and pavilions are evenly distributed, simple yet imposing. Precious Buddhist images and scripture are engraved in the bronze statue of Buddha Samantabhadra and bronze bell with lotus motifs in the monastery.
The characters of “Baoguo Monastery” on the horizontal board were inscribed by Emperor Kangxi himself. Memorial tablets in honor of the “three religions” are enshrined in the monastery. For Buddhism, the tablet is devoted to Samantabhadra, for Mt. Emei used to be the ritual site of Samantabhadra; for Daoism, the tablet is devoted to Guangchengzi, the man said to be the incarnation of Senior Lord Li. He once preached Daoism in Mt. Emei; for Confucianism, the tablet is devoted to Chu Kuang, a contemporary of Confucius. The king of Chu offered him an official position, but he declined by pretending to be mad and later lived in seclusion in Mt. Emei. The establishment of Huizong Hall reflected the section of history in which Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism were fused in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Today, as a main attraction on the way to the Mountain, Baoguo Monastery is a center of Buddhist activities of Mt. Emei and popular with pilgrims and tourists alike.
