Jue yuan 覺園

The Enlightenment Garden 覺園 was a center of lay Buddhist activity in Shànghǎi in the 1920s and 1930s.

• 1923 - 19??
• Location(s): Chángdé (formerly Hart) Road 常德路 in Shànghǎi 上海

Contents 1 History 2 Groups that Used the Garden 3 Notes 4 References

History

The Garden was owned by the wealthy brothers Jiǎn Zhàonán 簡照南 and Jiǎn Yùjiē 簡玉階 of Nanyang Brothers Tobacco, who called it Southern Garden 南園. A Bodhi hermitage 菩提精舍 was located there, but when Jiǎn Yùjiē died in 1923, his brother decided to make good karma for him by converting the entire four-acre gardens into a Buddhist center. This became the headquarters of Shànghǎi Buddhist Pure Karma Association 上海佛教淨業社. The shrine hall here housed a number of monks, whose morning and evening devotions were open to the public.

Groups that Used the Garden

• Bodhi Study Society: Pútí xuéhuì 菩提學會 (1934 - 1937)
• Buddha's Voice Radio XMHB (1930s - 1940)
• Chinese Buddhist Association 中國佛教會 (1929 - 1937)
• Shànghǎi Buddhist Pure Karma Association 上海佛教淨業社 (1923 - 19??)
  • Their periodical Pure Karma Monthly 淨業月刊, was published here from 1925 to 1928.

Notes

References

• Yú Língbō 于凌波, ed. Xiàndài Fójiào rénwù cídiǎn 現代佛教人物辭典 (A Dictionary of Modern Buddhist Persons), 2 vols. Taipei: Foguang, 2004. Pp. 1.758b-759c (entry for Shī Shěngzhī 施省之)
• Welch, Holmes. The Buddhist Revival in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. Pp. 77