Ｂｕｄｄｈａ Ｈｅａｄ Ｃｏｍｅｓ Ｂａｃｋ ｔｏ Ｙａｎｇｚｈｏｕ

In May， 2007， a pavilion was unveiled in the compound of the millennium-old Daming Temple in Yangzhou. The Hongfo Pavilion bears witness to the friendship between China and Japan.

The seed for this pavilion was planted in a landscaping project for the China Jianzhen Academy (Monk Jianzhen of the Tang Dynasty tried five times before he finally succeeded in crossing the ocean to reach Japan and promote Buddhism and Chinese culture there). The abbot of the Daming Temple engaged landscaping architect Le Feng to produce a design. Le knew how challenging a task it was to build such a project for the academy located at the Daming Temple. So he and his friend Chen Dali went to visit Japan in November， 2006 for the purpose of studying the garden landscaping in the neighboring country.

Le Feng met with Mr. Kazuo Ikeda， an entrepreneur and Buddhist and friend of Chen Dali. In his collection was a Buddha Head made in white jade， which he bought from another big entrepreneur in 1972. It was said that the head had before exchanged hands many times among business tycoons， cultural celebrities and statesmen. A reverent monk in Japan once said the head of Buddha Guanyin was made in Suzhou of China in 300 A.D. According to the monk， it was a rare artifact made during the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316). The head was estimated to be worth 400 million yuan.

Mr. Ikeda believed such a treasure should go back to China but he was not sure how to get it back to China. When learning Mr. Ikeda’s intention， Le Feng and Chen Dali suggested that the head be donated to the Daming Temple in Yangzhou. Mr. Ikeda said yes there and then， and said it was predestination.

Le Feng and Chen Dali reported Mr. Ikeda’s prospective donation to the abbot and the Yangzhou Government the second day after they were back in Yangzhou. They proposed to build a pavilion to house the head. The temple decided to accept the donation.

Le Feng and the Abbot were happy when they found that they had independently chosen the same spot without prior discussion. The ideal venue was a lawn near a pagoda in the temple. The abbot had kept it empty for 20 years and turned down many building proposals. He had hoped that it might be used for a really worthy project. Now he was excited， saying that it was a divine manifestation of Monk Jianzhen.

Le Feng devoted himself to the design， thinking it day and night. The inspiration popped up one day when he was chatting with an old man. He immediately fished out a piece of paper and drew the design. A team of elite architects participated in the design and experienced craftsmen constructed the pavilion. □