Xilai Ancient Temple

Firstly built in Qing dynasty, Xilai Ancient Temple is located on the west side of Liuzhou city, facing the Lu River, is one of the few ancient temples left in the city. Xilai means “from the west” in Chinese, which is originated from a Buddha master called Tamo monk and the history of this temple can be dated back to Ming Dynasty. With the growing population of tourists, Xilai Ancient Temple is enjoying a good reputation in recent years.



In June of 1983, there was a peace ritual hosted by Xilai temple and Linglai temple, with more than 150 attendees from domestic and abroad. New York Times even published a report about this. Now the ritual has attracted more than 1000-1800 people every year.Every year in 18 of April according to lunar calendar, the temple would host a life-releasing ritual, in order to help improve the ecological balance in the area.



In front of the temple, there is a big yard with grand hall in the middle, living rooms for monk in the east. A delicately carved rock tablet is placed on the right side of the front gate, the tour guide tells me it’s from 300 years ago, looking very ancient. They also have inscription on the wall about the horrible flood happened in 1902, which has becomes a precious historical materials in nowadays.Despite it was still early in the morning, the yard already was filled with pilgrims from all directions. They kneel sincerely in front of altar, telling the Buddha what’s bothering them and hopefully, Buddha could ease away their worries and troubles.



The huge bell just gives extra color to this ancient temple, which has won a place in Guinness World Records-the Largest Buddha Bell in the world. It is called the Thousand Buddha Bell, made from cooper alloy, bell mouth with shape of lotus and bell body of sun, sea water and cliffs. It is about 9 meters high, weighted 109 tons, and with a diameter of 6.06 meters. Standing in front of it, you would feel so much peace inside, it’s like a huge Buddha in front of you. But as a matter of fact, the newly-built bell also adds some sense of modern, to the temple, making it feel less ancient.



The monks here are really nice to tourists, each one of them is with a peaceful smile on their faces the whole time and always explains everything to tourists with great patience. This young monk even gave us a book of Diamond sutra. Diamond Sutra van b back to 868 B.C. It is also the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book. It seems too deep for me to understand all, but there are nice words, such as this :All composed things are like a dream, a phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning. That is how to meditate on them, that is how to observe them.