Dabei Temple

The Dabei Temple (大悲禅院) is a Chan Buddhist temple covering 10,600 square metres, and it now consists of the West Monastery of 1669 and the East Monastery of 1940, which makes it the oldest and largest in the city. The old monastery was begun in the early Qing and renovated in the eighth year of Kangxi, and the district's account adds that the building was started in 1658 and 1659 with money donated by Cao Bin, then commander of the Tianjin garrison. It holds a Qing Sakyamuni statue seven metres high and six tonnes in weight with 9,999 small Buddhas carved on its lotus throne, and a 3.6-metre mud statue of the thousand-hand Guanyin. In 1983 the State Council approved it as a nationally open Buddhist temple.