Ordination Altar Temple

Ordination Altar Temple or Ordination Terrace Temple(Jietaisi戒台寺）， is located at Ma’anshan (Saddle Hill) in the Western Hills, 35 kilometers west of Beijing. It was built in 622 in the Tang Dynasty, and was known as the Wisdom Accumulation Temple (HuijuSi). In the Liao Dynasty, a monk named Fajun had an altar built here for the ordination of novices into the Buddhist priesthood. It was renovated and renamed the Longevity Temple (WangshouSi) under the Ming Dynasty. The temple is commonly known as Jietasi, Ordination Altar Temple or ” the place for selecting Buddhas”. Most of the present buildings were reconstructed on the Qing Dynasty.

The Mahaira Hall, the main hall in the Temple, originally contained ten carved sandalwood chairs made in the Ming Dynasty. Three of them were placed high above, for the abbot and two elders, and another three to the left and four to the right, for the witnesses to the ordination ceremony. Outside the hall there are two steles, one erected in the Jin Dynasty and the other in the Liao dynasty. In the northeast compound is the Ordination Altar made of white marble. It consists of three levels altogether over three meters high. On the upper level is a statue of Sakyamuni seated on a lotus flower base and ten chairs of eaglewood for the preacher and witness on ordination. The base is carved with figures of several hundred deities. The ordination altar is the largest extant in China.

South of the altar is the pagoda courtyard, in which stand two pagodas built in the Liao and Yuan dynasties. Not far from the courtyard is the Hall of the Brilliant Kings with a stone balustrade in front enclosing three stone pillars. They are inscribed with Buddhist sutras, and images. Two of them were erected in the Liao Dynasty and the other dated from the Yuan dynasty. They are all in good condition. Just as the Pool and Cudrania Temple is famous for its spring water, the Ordination Altar Temple is noted for its ancient pine trees, which date from the Liao and Jin dynasties and are still growing luxuriantly. Many of the pine trees have been given names suggested by their distinctive shapes, such as the Reclining-dragon Pine, the Unrestrained Pine, the Nine-dragon Pine, the Embracing-pagoda Pine and the Sensitive Pine, which quivers if one of its branches is touched

---------------------------------------------------------------
Author: AmoyTrip.com--Ordination Altar Temple
Free Inquiry: ryan@amoytrip.com