Jade Buddha Temple

The Jade Buddha Temple (simplified Chinese: 玉佛禅寺; traditional Chinese: 玉佛禪寺; pinyin: Yùfó Chán Sì; Shanghainese: Niohveh Zoe Zy, literally Jade Buddha Chan Temple) is a Buddhist temple in Shanghai. It was founded in 1882 with two jade Buddha statues imported to Shanghai from Myanmar by sea. These were a sitting Buddha (1.95 meters tall, 3 tons), and a smaller reclining Buddha representing the Buddha's death. The temple now also contains a much larger reclining Buddha made of marble, donated from Singapore, and visitors may mistake this larger sculpture for the original, smaller piece.

The legend behind the transport of the Buddha statues from Myanmar led to the popular usage of Burmese-style Buddha statues in Chinese temples.

During the reign of the Guangxu Emperor (r. 1875–1908) in the Qing dynasty, Huigen, a Buddhist monk from Mount Putuo, went on a pilgrimage to Tibet via Mount Wutai and Mount Emei. He visited Burma after leaving Tibet. Whilst there, Chen Jun-Pu, an overseas Chinese resident in Burma, donated five jade Buddha statues to Huigen, who transported two of them back to Jiang-wan, Shanghai. Here, Huigen had a temple built with donated funds, and died shortly thereafter. This temple was occupied during the 1911 uprising, and the statues were moved to Maigen Road.

A Buddhist monk by the name of Kechen later had a new temple built on land donated by Sheng Xuanhuai, a senior official in the Qing imperial court. Sheng's father and uncle were pious Buddhists. They built houses with thatched roofs at Yizhou Pond by the Zhuanghuabang River in the northeast of Shanghai. This can be accounted as the predecessor of the monastery. The construction took ten years, and lasted from 1918 to 1928. Kechen also invited Reverend Dixian from Mount Tiantai to come and lecture on Buddhism in a grand ceremony.

Master Taixu died in the Jade Buddha Temple on March 12, 1947.

In 1956, a ceremony was held at the temple by the Shanghai Buddhist Association to celebrate the 2500th anniversary of The Buddha's enlightenment.

In 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, monks affixed posters of Mao Zedong on the exterior of the Temple in order to prevent revolutionaries from destroying the temple.

In 1983, the Shanghai Institute of Buddhism was established at the temple under the Shanghai Buddhist Association.