4 November 2562/2019 CHINA: Phra Sophonvachirabhorn, Vice Rector for Foreign Affairs, MCU, is to visit Buddhist College of Minnan, Siming Qu, Xiamen Shi, Fujian Sheng, China. He was received by Most Ven. Ze Wu, Abbot of Nanputuo Temple. Vice Rector for Foreign Affairs, MCU, holds discussions about the education with administers of Buddhist College of Minnan as well.
The Buddhist College of Minnan established in 1925 within in the Nanputuo Temple, the Buddhist College of Minnan (here after BCM) has a history of 91 years (as by 2016) and is one of the oldest Buddhist colleges in contemporary China.
Over the past 91 years of ups and downs, the college has been through a long history of development under the leaderships of some successive rectors: namely, establishment under the leadership of Ven. Master Hui Quan, further development under the Ven. Master Tai Xu, sustaining by Ven. Master Da Xing, the reestablishment by Ven. Master Miao Zhan, further growth under Ven. Master Sheng Hui, and the continuation under Ven. Master Ze Wu. It is the whole-hearted efforts that have made the college a key factor in proselytizing Buddhism overseas and a great contributor to the promotion of Buddhism in China and Southeast Asia.
In the early years of Republic of China (1912-1949), with the Buddhism Reform Movement in Xiamen, it became an absolute priority for the Buddhist communities to determine how to intellectually promote monastic education in the temple and improve monastic quality in an overall way.
The Nanputuo Temple was the first monastery to initiate monastic education. The BCM and the Buddhist Spiritual Nurturing School of Minnan, both founded on the Temple premises in 1925 and 1933, respectively, were aiming to innovative monastic elites. From that time on, eminent monks flooded into the monastery, young monks from all over the country joined the institutions to study the Buddha’s teachings, which made the monastery flourishing more than ever, and reputed both nationally and internationally. These two institutions produced a great number of remarkable Buddhist monastics for early modern Chinese Buddhism and earned a great deal of respect among the monastic and lay Buddhist communities alike.
http://en.nanputuo.com/colleage/Introducedetails.aspx?channel_id=73
