Jade Buddha Temple - Shanghai - China

During the reign of the Guangxu Emperor (1871–1908) in the Qing dynasty, Huigen, a Buddhist monk, went on a pilgrimage to Tibet. He visited Myanmar (also known as Burma) after leaving Tibet. While there, Chen Jun-Pu, an overseas Chinese resident in Myanmar, donated five jade Buddha statues to Huigen, who transported two of them back to Shanghai. Here, Huigen had a temple built in 1882 with donated funds, where he placed the two jade Buddha statues. Shortly after the construction of the temple, the Buddhist monk passed away.

In 1911, during the Chinese Revolution, the original temple was occupied and damaged by the rebels. The temple, as well as the jade statues, were moved to a new location.

A few years later, in 1918, a Buddhist monk by the name of Kechen later had a new temple built on land donated by a member of the Qing imperial court, Sheng Xuanhuai. The construction took ten years, and completed in 1928.

In the 1960's, during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the temple faced difficult times and the monks had to make a living by selling handicrafts. In 1983, the Shanghai Buddhist Association used the temple as the headquarters of The Shanghai Institute of Buddhism.