Longquan Monastery

Beijing Longquan Monastery
北京龙泉寺
People
Founder(s)Ven. Xuecheng
AbbotVen. Xuecheng
Site
LocationBeijing, China
Coordinates40°6′7.999″N 116°5′4.999″E / 40.10222194°N 116.08472194°E / 40.10222194; 116.08472194
Websiteeng.longquanzs.org
Map

Longquan Monastery, also called Longquan Temple or Beijing Longquan Monastery is a Chinese Buddhist monastery located in the suburban area of Beijing, China. It was originally established in Liao dynasty and recently revived on April 11, 2005 by Ven. Master Xuecheng.

Longquan Monastery is famous for its sangha body. Currently, there are hundreds of monks. Many of them have very high education degree from top universities in China. Longquan Monastery is also notable for creating the robot and chatbot Robot Monk Xian'er.

Longquan Monastery is located at the foot of the Phoenix mountain range in the westernmost portion of Beijing's Haidian District. Founded in the Liao Dynasty (907–1125), this generations-old monastery brims with an air of modernization. On April 11, 2005, the monastery formally opened itself up to the outside and Ven. Master Xuecheng, the current president of the Buddhist Association of China, was appointed abbot.

Since opening, Beijing's Longquan Monastery has devoted itself to developing new channels, methods, and means of combining Buddhist traditions with modern culture. This includes making its values integrated and useful to mainstream society and promoting traditional Chinese culture across the world.

“Relying on precepts to guard the Sangha, the Sangha to guard the lay community, and allow cooperation between the two to blossom” are methods to which the monastery holds fast. It uses them as a means to cultivate talented laypersons and spread the word of Dharma.

Currently, this body - - aimed at propagating Buddhist teachings - is divided into five major departments and three major centers. The five departments are Construction, Culture, Charity, Publicity, and Education. There are also three specialist Centers - Translation, Animation, and Artificial Intelligence & IT. This cooperative division of labor has allowed the monastery to develop various projects, such as the construction of infrastructure, the publishing of books and CD ROMs, charitable contributions to the public, the development of a traditional culture website, the education of lay Buddhists, the translation of Buddhist works, the creation of manga and anime, and the digitization of the monastery's information networks.