I have long heard that there is an Ashoka Pagoda in Ningbo, and finally I have the opportunity to come to Ningbo, take my mother and say that I will go to the Buddha relics that I have longed for for a long time.
From Ningbo city, follow the navigation and take the subway to get off at Baozhuang Station, and you need to take a bus to reach your destination. There are two Ashoka Temples on the bus stop sign, and my mother and I are a bit blindfolded, what is this? Ask the local grandmother who is waiting for the car at the same time, and the grandmother only says that it is good to go.
57 micro bus came, on the bus first asked the driver about the situation of the two Ashoka Temples, the driver's big brother only said that one is an ancient temple and one is a new temple, which one to go to see our own, my mother and I decided to go to the last stop first: ancient Ashoka Temple!
Watch the video even more wonderfully: is the Buddha still in this old Ashoka Temple?
As the driver's eldest brother said, although this is an ancient temple, the buildings are all new. A gray brick in front of the mountain gate illuminates the four large characters "Western Jin Dynasty Ancient Temple" on the wall, informing the world that this is a thousand-year-old temple with a history of 1700 years.
Why is this monastery called "Ashoka"? Who is Ashoka?
Ashoka was a king of the peacock dynasty of ancient India, who unified ancient India by force, very similar to our Qin Shi Huang, who was both a contemporary and did the same great thing to unify the country, and was regarded as a tyrant by posterity, but all became an emperor for thousands of years.
After achieving his great deeds, Ashoka devoted himself to the Buddha and devoted himself to upholding the Dharma. After the Buddha attained nirvana, eighty-four thousand relics appeared, and after hearing the news, various countries fought for the relics. After years of war and chaos, the people's lives were miserable, contrary to the Buddha's concept of great compassion and compassion, Ashoka finally divided the relics with divine power, built 84,000 pagodas in one day to enshrine the relics, and spread the Dharma to all places.
Legend has it that during the Taikang period of the Western Jin Dynasty, a Taiyuan monk named Huida had a dream. In a dream, an Indian monk told him something about the Buddha Stupa, and Whida woke up and realized that it was the guidance of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva. He began to travel the world in search of the stupa of his dreams.
Coming to this place in Ningbo and hearing the sound of bells and chimes coming from the ground, Huida knew that the opportunity had arrived, and recited the sutra on the spot. A few days later, a tower emerged from the ground, believing that it was the Ashoka Pagoda given by the Indian monks in the dream. Huida built a temple here to guard the pagoda. Since then, it has been valued by successive dynasties and dynasties, and has received many high-standard repairs and expansions. He also received plaques from Emperor Wu of Liang and Zhu Yuanzhang.
Since more than 1700, the temple has been destroyed and built several times, and the current temple has been rebuilt on the monument of the present. What about the legendary Ashoka Tower? What about the relics in the tower?
We met the masters who had just finished their homework in the monastery, and when we inquired, we realized that the ancient pagoda had long been destroyed, and only a few relics were left on the back hill. Now that the mountain is under construction and repair, you may not be able to see the remains of the ancient pagoda, so Master said that he would come back when all the monasteries were built.
My mother and I walked around the brand-new ancient Ashoka Temple, and we met a volunteer brother who told us that this was indeed the place where the stupa stupa sprang up, but during the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, there was a fire, and the master had to invite the relics out of the pagoda, and the temple had been completely burned to the ground. Master had no choice but to take the relics back to find a suitable place to settle down.
He found a feng shui treasure land under the peak of the Foothills of the Taibai Mountains, and re-raised funds to build a temple, which was still called "Ashoka Temple" after the temple was built.
Only the monuments remain here, and now they are also being restored and repaired, hoping to welcome the relics back again. My mother and I finally understood why there are two Ashoka Temples, but I feel that this ancient temple is a bit embarrassing, except for the remains of the ancient pagoda and the historical legends that have been left, all the others are newly built, even if you ask the locals in Ningbo about the "Ashoka Temple" will not guide you here, they are talking about the one that was repaired later.
We took the micro-57 road back to Ashoka Temple, and when we looked at the square and the mountain gate, we knew that this temple was not small, and sure enough, it was not only an unexpected scenery inside. The later Ashoka Temple has been well preserved for more than three hundred years, but it has left a lot of cultural relics, and the key is that the Buddha relics are here. Insiders commented that the ancient temple is new and the new temple is ancient. Most people can't understand it, haha.
After going in, I realized that it is not easy to worship the relics, and people who have to do some kung fu can see it, what conditions must be met? Let's take a closer look at it in the next issue.
If there are any omissions in the above content, please criticize and correct them. Donkey sister took her mother all over China We have been on the road, mainly famous mountains and rivers in various places, mainly ancient monasteries, Buddhists travel slowly while walking and practicing. Video sync is posted on the home page, interested in moving to view.