• 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 GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • 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

Nursing Home Destroyed for Worshiping Buddha

01/29/2020Li Guang |

Buddhist temples continue to be demolished across China. Even their charitable projects, like providing a home for the elderly, are not spared.

by Li Guang

“These government officials are like a gang of bandits.”

Jingxin Temple in Zhengzhou, the capital of the central province of Henan, was built in 2016, at the cost of over 6 million RMB (approximately $ 860,000) funded by a local Buddhist in her 60s. The land for the temple was leased in 2012 for 40 years from four villagers, and the village committee approved the agreement. In 2017, the temple also obtained a license to operate a nursing home for elderly Buddhists, who lived there for free.

The original appearance of the Jingxin Temple.
The original appearance of the Jingxin Temple.

On the early morning of October 31, 2019, the temple and the nursing home were demolished for “illegally using the land” and “holding religious activities without approval.” According to an eyewitness, the local government dispatched over 100 people and an excavator for the job, while more government employees blocked the nearby intersection.

Government employees guard the intersection by the temple.
Government employees guard the intersection by the temple.

When over 30 government employees broke inside, the temple’s in-charge asked for their documentation. In reply, one of the officials violently snatched her phone and threatened to silence her with a towel if she continued to insist. The woman was forcibly dragged out of the temple, her clothes ripped, and one of her eyes injured. Four hours later, the temple and all its annexes were razed to the ground, debris covering all of its 13 Buddha statues and other valuables.

Videos: The Jingxin Temple is being demolished.

“The CCP boasts about religious freedoms it grants to the people, but in reality, it deliberately dismantles Buddhist temples. They are hypocrites,” a local villager said in anger.

“Religion teaches us to be good people and do good deeds. The government does not tolerate anything righteous,” another elderly villager said. “These government officials are like a gang of bandits that need to be gotten rid of.”

Temple demolished after months of harassment

The Buddhist Fushou Temple, located in Xing’an county under the jurisdiction of Guilin city in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was built over 400 years ago. Destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, it was rebuilt in 2016. The popular temple had more than 40 statues of Buddha.

The original appearance of the Fushou Temple.
The original appearance of the Fushou Temple.

On June 4, 2019, the county’s Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau issued an order to shut down the temple because “it was an illegal religious activity venue” built without approval. All religious activities were to be seized by the 15th of the month. All signboards and recognition plaques were also ordered to be removed.

A notice on the closure of the Fushou Temple, issued by the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau of Guilin’s Xing’an county.
A notice on the closure of the Fushou Temple, issued by the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau of Guilin’s Xing’an county.

Even after the temple was closed down, the government didn’t stop harassing it. On June 16, about 70 law enforcement officers, including the chief of the local police station, cordoned off the temple and removed all its Buddha statues. Ironically, before removing them, the officers summoned the temple’s monks to strike the bell, chant spells, and perform Buddhist rituals.

“In the past, bandits robbed people at night. Nowadays, bandits in police uniforms plunder in the daylight,” the person in charge of the temple could not hide the anger.

On December 12, about 100 local Public Security Bureau and police officers set up four checkpoints at the intersection in front of the Fushou Temple, to prevent people from approaching, as two excavators were brought in to demolish it.

The Fushou Temple was razed to the ground.
The Fushou Temple was razed to the ground.

According to a source familiar with the matter, the person in charge of the temple had repeatedly submitted applications for the religious activity venue registration certificate but was turned down every time.

Tagged With: Buddhism

Related articles

  • USCIRF Charges China’s Authorized Religious Bodies as Communist Party Accomplices

    USCIRF Charges China’s Authorized Religious Bodies as Communist Party Accomplices

  • Supreme Lama of Kalmyk Buddhists Condemns Putin’s Aggression Against Ukraine 

    Supreme Lama of Kalmyk Buddhists Condemns Putin’s Aggression Against Ukraine 

  • A False “Buddhist Diplomacy”: State-Controlled Chinese and Russian Buddhists Support Each Other

    A False “Buddhist Diplomacy”: State-Controlled Chinese and Russian Buddhists Support Each Other

  • Institute of Tantric Buddhism: The Repression Continues

    Institute of Tantric Buddhism: The Repression Continues

Keep Reading

  • Tantrayana Buddhism: When China Uses “Cults” for Propaganda Purposes
    Tantrayana Buddhism: When China Uses “Cults” for Propaganda Purposes

    Master Wang’s group is criticized by many. However, there are serious suspects the CCP uses it in Australia to promote a pro-Xi-Jinping and anti-Taiwan agenda.

  • China Cracks Down on the Bodhi Gong Movement
    China Cracks Down on the Bodhi Gong Movement

    The international group, known internationally as Bodhi Meditation, may now have more practitioners abroad, but is still active in China despite a long repression.

  • China’s Strange Battle Against Buddhists Releasing Mineral Water into Rivers
    China’s Strange Battle Against Buddhists Releasing Mineral Water into Rivers

    Believers have released fish for making merit for centuries. The CCP is now campaigning against the alleged release of mineral water. Why?

  • Greater China Buddhism: Lessons from a Defunct Religious Movement
    Greater China Buddhism: Lessons from a Defunct Religious Movement

    The story of an extinct group, also called the “Three Periods of Pudu,” is taught to those in charge of fighting “cults” in China. But why is it still relevant?

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

MOST READ

  • Why the Unification Church Should Not Be Dissolved. 1. A General Outline by Tatsuki Nakayama
  • Gansu: World-Famous Xiguan Mosque Is Also “Sinicized” by Ma Wenyan
  • Why the Unification Church Should Not Be Dissolved. 2. Dissolving Would Be Contrary to the Law by Tatsuki Nakayama
  • China’s Strange Battle Against Buddhists Releasing Mineral Water into Rivers by Gladys Kwok
  • Why the Unification Church Should Not Be Dissolved. 3. The Truth About “Spiritual Sales” and “Excessive Donations” by Tatsuki Nakayama
  • China Promotes a “Confucianized” Approach to the Holy Quran by Ma Wenyan
  • Can Religious Liberty Bring Taiwan to Build an Alternative International Diplomacy? by Marco Respinti

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

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

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

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