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Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

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Home / Pictures

Don’t Worship Buddha – the State Orders You to Learn Calligraphy Instead

08/03/2019Zhang Feng |

Buddhist and Taoist places of worship are continuously taken over by the government. Believers are dispersed, religion replaced with “red” cultural activities.

by Zhang Feng

A thousand-year-old temple becomes an exhibition hall

Dayun Temple, also known as Tiefo Temple (literally “Iron Buddha Temple”), is located in Yaodu district of Linfen city in the northern province of Shanxi. It was built in 632, the sixth year of the Zhenguan era during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The temple was destroyed during a major earthquake in 1695, during the reign of the Qing Dynasty’s (1636-1912) Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722), and was reconstructed twenty years later.

Posters promoting the Party’s policies
Posters promoting the Party’s policies were displayed inside the main hall of Dayun Temple.

According to a local Buddhist, officials from Yaodu district’s Religious Affairs Bureau took over the temple last year and converted it into a “cultural relic management office,” proclaiming that this was no longer a temple, and no one is allowed to hold Buddhist ceremonies or worship. Ceremonial Buddhist attire was also banned, and all the monks have been driven away. The Bureau of Cultural Relics now controls the temple, the officials said.

Main hall of Dayun Temple was being converted a calligraphy hall
The main hall of Dayun Temple has been converted into a calligraphy exhibition hall.

Immediately after the statues of deities were removed from the temple’s main Mahavira Hall, local officials organized a calligraphy exhibition, dedicated to the special battle “to clean up gang crime and eliminate evil” – a nationwide campaign to fight organized crime, though often used by the authorities a pretext to crack down on religion.

Dayun Temple was turned into a venue for calligraphy exhibition
A calligraphy exhibition was organized immediately after the temple was taken over.

In late April this year, a graduation exhibition for an adult calligraphy class was held in the former temple. Numbered signs were hung outside the main hall and two other rooms, indicating the locations of the show. The incense cauldron has disappeared from the temple’s courtyard, and a row of conspicuous banners promoting the calligraphy class were displayed instead.

At the entrance to Dayun Temple hangs a signboard
At the entrance to Dayun Temple, a signboard was displayed, indicating that it’s a cultural relic management office.

In June, a security gate with an electronic counter was installed at the main entrance to the temple to control the number of visiting people. A registration form was displayed on the table next to the gate,  requiring all visitors to write down their full name, ID number, phone number, workplace, and other personal information, as well as specify the reason for their visit.

“The current situation is worse than that during the Cultural Revolution when people were punished in the open. Now, the government is punishing them in secret,” a local resident commented angrily. “The government forcibly occupied Dayun Temple, even though everyone knows that it doesn’t belong to them.”

Taoist priests forced to climb over the wall to enter their temple

Taoist statues were removed from Qingxu Temple
Taoist statues were removed from Qingxu Temple.

Qingxu Temple, a Taoist temple located in Zhen’an district of Dandong city in the northeast province of Liaoning, was built in 1906, during the reign of Guangxu Emperor (1871-1908). Partially destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, the temple was renovated in 2013 with investments from several individuals and became very popular among the local people.

Qingxu Temple is left empty after all Taoist statues were removed
Qingxu Temple was left empty after all religious items were removed.

In late May, the city’s Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs sealed off the temple, claiming that it was unlicensed. Everything was ordered to be removed from the temple – statues, incense burners, and other items. Everything containing religious wording inside and outside the temple was smeared over, and two Taoist priests were ordered to leave the temple.

Entrances to Qingxu Temple were sealed off
All entrances to Qingxu Temple were sealed off.

A month later, the town government replaced the signboard with the name of the temple with “Antique Books and Cultural Services.” All entrances to Qingxu Temple were sealed off with galvanized iron sheets, so the two priests had to climb over the wall to get inside the temple – a strenuous activity that has caused injuries to one of them. To date, he still hasn’t fully recovered.

The signboard reading “Qingxu Temple” was replaced
The signboard reading “Qingxu Temple” was replaced with the one reading “Antique Books and Cultural Services.”

Temples elsewhere in China are continuously being repurposed on a variety of pretexts, officials prohibiting any religious activities there.  In late April, Tianhou Temple – a historical and cultural site protected by the city – in Huanren Manchu Autonomous County of Liaoning Province’s Benxi city was taken over by the local Bureau of Cultural Relics on the grounds that it was unlicensed. Temple fairs and all other religious activities were ordered to be ceased, visitors turned away, and all of the temple’s priests and nuns forced to leave.

Notice on the “rectification” of Tianhou
Notice for the “rectification” of Tianhou Temple in Huanren Manchu Autonomous County.

Around the same time, the United Front Work Department of Xiuyan Manchu Autonomous County under the jurisdiction of Anshan city in Liaoning issued a document prohibiting the burning of incense in temples “to prevent air pollution.”

Police conduct surveillance at the temple’s entrance
Police conduct surveillance at the temple’s entrance and prohibit believers from bringing incense.

Tagged With: Buddhism, Regulation on Religious Affairs, Taoism

bw-profile
Zhang Feng

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

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