• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / Pictures

More Buddhist Statues Succumb to Nationwide Demolition Drive

12/16/2019Lin Yijiang |

The CCP continues its campaign to obliterate outdoor Buddhist statues across China, coming up with a myriad of trumped-up reasons to demolish or conceal them.

by Lin Yijiang

Table of Contents

  • Bodhisattvas in captivity
  • 508 Arhat statues smashed into pieces
  • Ancient temple loses over 50 statues
  • Disappearing statues of Guanyin

Bodhisattvas in captivity

A nearly-10-meter-tall thousand-hand Guanyin statue stands outside Baimiaozi Temple in Qingyi town, under the jurisdiction of Mianyang city in the southwestern province of Sichuan. In July, the local government ordered the temple’s person in charge to conceal the statue because “it was an eyesore due to its height,” threatening to demolish it otherwise. The work ended up costing the temple more than 120,000 RMB (about $ 17,000).

The thousand-hand Guanyin statue outside Baimiaozi Temple before and after it was concealed
The thousand-hand Guanyin statue outside Baimiaozi Temple before and after it was concealed.

In the southeastern province of Jiangxi, a Yunfeng Temple’s 12-meter-tall outdoor Guanyin statue in Pingxiang city was enclosed in a specially-built pavilion on orders from the provincial inspection team in August. The construction cost was higher than the statue itself – over 700,000 RMB (about $ 98,000).

The outdoor Guanyin statue in Yunfeng Temple before and after being enclosed in a pavilion
The outdoor Guanyin statue in Yunfeng Temple was enclosed in a pavilion.
A bamboo scaffold was being set up to build the pavilion to enclose the Guanyin statue
A bamboo scaffold was set up for the construction of the pavilion.

508 Arhat statues smashed into pieces

In November, 508 Arhat statues in Longshan Buddhist Realm Scenic Spot in Dongyang city in the eastern province of Zhejiang were ordered to be demolished. Created and installed with the funding from an individual donor, the icons were turned into ruins because the authorities decided that they “had no educational meaning” – a new addition to a long list of ridiculous reasons the Chinese government comes up with during its war against outdoor Buddhists icons, next to “obstructing the view for pilots” or “being too tall.”

A source revealed that during the demolition that lasted one week, the entire scenic spot was taped off on orders by local officials, prohibiting visitors from entering.

Over 500 Arhat statues have been destroyed for having “no educational meaning.”

Ancient temple loses over 50 statues

In May, local government officials, claiming that “the state does not allow outdoor Buddhist statues,” ordered to demolish more than 50 statues surrounding a Buddhist temple, built in the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907), in Xinzhou city in the northern province of Shanxi.

According to an inside source, all the icons were no more than 5-meters-tall, and most of them were enclosed in pavilions, so technically, they could not be treated as outdoor statues. The order was nevertheless enforced since local officials were afraid to be reprimanded by the higher-ups or even lose their posts.

Buddhist statues under pavilions before and after being demolished
More than 50 statues outside a temple in Xinzhou city have been destroyed.

Disappearing statues of Guanyin

In Shanxi’s Datong city, the person in charge of a Buddhist temple was pressured by local officials in early June to either destroy a 13-meter-tall Guanyin statue next to the place of worship or have the entire temple destroyed.

The Guanyin statue in a Buddhist temple in Shanxi’s Datong city before and after being demolished
The Guanyin statue in Shanxi’s Datong city was demolished to save the temple.

In August, an outdoor Buddhist statue, less than 10 meters tall, in Fuquan Temple in Wuan city in the northern province of Hebei, was forcibly demolished after a local official in charge was threatened to be dismissed if the statue were not destroyed.

The outdoor Buddhist statue in Fuquan Temple before and after being demolished
The statue in Fuquan Temple was demolished in August.

“I was tormented to the brink of mental disorder during those few days. With no other choice, I had to obey the Party and demolish the statue,” the official said helplessly.

 Bitter Winter reported in August about the Guanyin statue in Puzhao Temple in Shan county in the eastern province of Shandong, which was covered to save it from demolition. A month later, however, the icon was gone after a crane was dispatched to tear it down on orders by the local government.

The Guanyin statue in Puzhao Temple before and after being covered
The Guanyin statue in Puzhao Temple was first covered to save it from demolition.

“No one could stop the demolition. There were so many officials, including from the county’s Religious Affairs Bureau, and police officers. Anyone who tried to reason with them risked being arrested,” a Buddhist in her eighties remembered with anger.

The Guanyin statue in Puzhao Temple has been demolished
The statue was demolished in September.

Tagged With: Anti-Religious Campaigns, Buddhism

Lin Yijiang profile picture
Lin Yijiang

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • Book Promoting Atheism Launched with Great Fanfare in China

    Book Promoting Atheism Launched with Great Fanfare in China

  • Crackdown on Religious Content on the Internet Coming March 1, 2022

    Crackdown on Religious Content on the Internet Coming March 1, 2022

  • China: “Christmas Is Forbidden, It’s a Western Celebration”

    China: “Christmas Is Forbidden, It’s a Western Celebration”

  • Release on Bail in China: Do the New Rules Really Make It Easier?

    Release on Bail in China: Do the New Rules Really Make It Easier?

Keep Reading

  • Anti-Pornography Rules: In China, Religion Can Be Pornography Too
    Anti-Pornography Rules: In China, Religion Can Be Pornography Too

    Government claims those who stay at home for COVID lockdowns watch too much pornography. Yet, for the CCP “pornography and illegals” also include independent religion.

  • China’s Public Security: To Protect Economy, Crack Down on Illegal Religion
    China’s Public Security: To Protect Economy, Crack Down on Illegal Religion

    Top police bureaucrat explains why to implement the program of the Central Economic Work Conference controlling religion is essential.

  • Xi’an Church of Abundance: Crackdown on a Historical House Church
    Xi’an Church of Abundance: Crackdown on a Historical House Church

    After 30 years of existence, the theologically mainline church is accused of fraud and of being a xie jiao or a “cult.”

  • China: First CCP National Conference on Religion Held Since 2016
    China: First CCP National Conference on Religion Held Since 2016

    Xi Jinping asks for more Marxism, more surveillance of the Web, more Sinicization.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back by Gulfiye Y
  • Zhanargul Zhumatai: “Help Me, I Just Want to Leave China” by Ruth Ingram
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 1. The Aesthetic Mind by Massimo Introvigne
  • Stricter Rules on Private Tutoring Protect Ideology Rather than Parents by Wang Zhipeng
  • Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing by Massimo Introvigne
  • Hong Kong: Christian Scholar Peng Manyuan Released but Not Rehabilitated by Gladys Kwok
  • The Weaponization of the CCP’s “Zero COVID” Against Tibet by Marco Respinti
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 3. Art as Communication by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 4. Art and Illustration by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

Instant Exclusive News
Instant Exclusive News

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

Follow us

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY