A Study Of Dunhuang Mahayana Temple In Tang And Song Dynasties

As one of the five nun’s temples in Dunhuang during the Tang and Song dynasties,the Mahayana temple in Dunhuang located in the city of Shazhou.Now the Mahayana temple in Dunhuang is no longer existing.According to the existing historical data,the Dunhuang Mahayana temple disappeared after 1019 AD.The Dunhuang Mahayana temple is referred to as "Cheng" in Dunhuang literature.This paper takes "the Dunhuang Mahayana temple in the Tang and Song dynasties" as the research object,and adopts the method of case study to investigate the general situation of the Dunhuang Mahayana temple,one of the many nun’s temples in Dunhuang.The first two chapters make a basic investigation and analysis on the origin of the name of the Mahayana temple in Dunhuang,the time of its preservation and destruction,the temple architecture and the community of monks and nuns.In the third and fourth chapters,the author focuses on the economic situation of Dunhuang Mahayana temple and analyzes and discusses temple functions;In fifth chapter,a simple comparative study is made between the results of the previous study and the existing research results on monk’s temple in the academia,focusing on the economic model,the status of monks and nuns,and the status of monk’s temples and nun’s temples.The monks and nuns group who were born in Dunhuang Mahayana temple has not only played a very important role in the process of development and spread of Buddhism,but also been the important link of a temple with Dunhuang secular society under the double identity of the members of the family of secular and temple monks.The sources of income of nun’s temple represented by Dunhuang Mahayana temple is relatively narrow compared to the monk’s temple.They mainly rely on the rent income of land and workshop.The secondary income is dependent on alms and their religious,and at the same time it is a bright contrast with the monk’s temple who has an active usury income.Their income approach more traditional;In terms of expenditure,the temples represented by the Pure-land temple spent more money and goods outside the temple at that time,while the nun’s temple was mainly used to maintain the normal operation inside the temple.Therefore,compared with the export-oriented economic model of the monk’s temple,the nun’s temple was an inward-oriented economic model.In terms of secular status,most of the secular people and the secular ruling class,even the nuns themselves,have always believed that the status of the monk’s temple is higher than that of the nun’s temple,and the status of the monks is higher than that of the nuns..