21st century monks
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Temple revival
Six years ago when Longquan Temple was reopened as a religious premises, there were five monks and two Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) stone houses.
Today there are more than 50 monks and 150 practicing residents. Monks reside in a six-story multifunctional building that includes dorms for eight, a meeting room, office and a 300-person ground-floor dining hall.
The first blueprint was drawn up by a volunteer who works at the Architectural Design and Research Institute in Tsinghua University, Beijing. "We built it bit by bit," Master Xianqi said.
Construction of a 1,000-cubic-meter water tank in the west was almost finished when the reporter visited last weekend.
"It's hard to evaluate how much all the work cost," Master Xianqi said. "There were donations in cash, building materials and labor.
"The monks and volunteers shared 60 percent. Forty percent was done by outside workers."
Buddhism expert Zhou Guangrong at the Institute of World Religions compared Buddhism and Christianity during field research in Anhui Province in 2009.
Dangtu county where inhabitants were traditionally Buddhists or Taoists is now booming with Christians, Zhou found. "The Christians are active in promoting their religion," he said.
"It was the same when Buddhism was first introduced to China but by and by, the monks retreated to the mountains."
Today even though Buddhism is visible in the big cities, the temples tend to target the wealthy or powerful, Zhou said, not so much the ordinary people.
Some Buddhist volunteers believe that Xuecheng is a reincarnation of Xuanzang, the famous monk, scholar, traveler and translator who brought Buddhism to China from India in the early Tang Dynasty (618-904), said a Canadian lay guest who requested anonymity.
An art critic by day, the 40-year-old sometimes copy-edits English content for the temple at night.
"I have been to lots of Buddhist monasteries in other parts of China, and usually abbots like to keep a low profile," he said, "but Master Xuecheng is exceptional. It seems he has really got a mission."
The mission, as explained by Master Xianqi, is to spread Buddhism. In his capacity as vice chairman of the China Buddhism Association, Master Xuecheng leads Chinese mainland delegations to places such as the US, Canada, Egypt, India, Nepal, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Cyprus and Spain.
"A Buddhist's foremost responsibility is to benefit all the living," said Master Wuguang, also of Longquan Temple. "This is the same from ancient times until now.
"The technological means just make it easier for the message to reach the masses: It's still up to the individual to decide whether they want to become a Buddhist.
"It was loud speakers before and it's the Internet and microblogging now."
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