Address: 170 Anyuan Road, Jing'an, Shanghai, China
Opened: 1882
Phone: +86 21 6266 3668

Jade Buddha Temple is avenerable and famous Buddhist temple inthe western part of Shanghai. It was founded in 1882 to house two white jade Buddhas brought fromMount Putuo, Burma the year before by a monknamed Huigen of Putuo Shan. Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai is a temple which has 70 resident monks living and working there.

Hui Gen had a pilgrimage to Tibet via Mount Wutai and Mount Emei - two famous Buddhist mountains. Then, he arrived at Burma in which Hui Gen got five jade statues of Buddha donated by an oversea Chinese resident. Passing through Shanghai, he left two jade statues. And the Jade Buddha temple was built for keeping them.

The temple was destroyed during the revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911. In 1918, the Temple was reconstructed. But in Culture Revolution, the temple was destroyed again.Fortunately the statues were saved and a new temple was built on the present site in 1928.The temple was built in the style of the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

Jade Buddha Temple

Outside, the temple has symmetrical halls and courtyards, upturned eaves with bright saffron yellow walls.The temple contains Hall of Four Heavenly King, Grand Hall, Jade Buddha Chamber, abbot room and public restaurant. But it is not famed for its architecture. The temple is renowned for the two jade statues of Buddhahoused within. They are made of sparkling and crystal-clear white jade in Burma and depict Shakyamuni Buddha. Therefore, they are not only rare cultural relics but also porcelain artworks. The more impressive of the two is the Sitting Buddha, which is 190 centimeters in height and 1 ton in weight, depicting the Buddha at the moment of his meditation and enlightenment. It was installed after a monk brought it from Burma to Zhejiang Province in 1882.  It encrusted with the agate and the emerald and weigh about one thousand kilograms.A smaller, a reclined Buddha, is in the west section of the temple. A Singapore believer donated areclined Buddha enshrined on the opposite side of the jade reclined Buddha in 1989. It lies on a redwood bed. This jade Buddha shows the peaceful mood of Sakyamuni when he left this world.

Moreover, there are many other ancient paintings and Buddhist scriptures distributed in the different halls here.Over 7,000 volumes of precious Buddhist scriptures were hold in cabinets in halls. Especially, abbot room, on the first floor, has a Sakyamuni portrait is hanged on the wall.
Nearby the temple, there is astore which sells miniature sandalwood drums and gongs, replicas of the large ones used in ceremonies.