Master Kuanxing stands in front of the remains of his partially demolished Shili Temple in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, on June 13. Photo: CFP

Master Kuanxing, abbot of the 600-year-old Shili Temple, which now covered by a newly-constructed road and surrounded by high-rise residential buildings, lives alone in an ancestral hall in a village where his temple was once located.

"I'm severely sinful, as the temple was destroyed while under my care," Kuanxing said.

Along with another local abbot and abbess in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, Kuanxing is expected to move to a new temple being built, which will combine the three temples into one named "Nanhai Palace," after their temples' demolition.

The abbots are all against the move, saying that monks and nuns cannot live and conduct religious rituals in the same temple and that the temples have a separate heritage which, without their own buildings and names, can no longer continue.

However, the local government's will to proceed with the construction plan seems to be firm as they believe it is no problem that monks and nuns live in different courtyards in the new temple complex, which occupies 2.7 hectares.

This is just one example among dozens of cases where religious buildings, many of them centuries old, have been demolished during the process of urbanization or local officials' ambitious plans to create "a grander site" for clergy.

Forced together

Like Kuanxing, 68-year-old Master Huiren, abbess of the Jingye Buddhist Nunnery, lives with four other masters in a primary school surrounded by residential buildings as their temple was also demolished.

Temporary dormitories have been set up for monks and nuns of the three temples during the transition period before the new temple is set up, but none of them has moved in to the narrow housing, with less than a meter between rooms.

Master Canci, abbot of Xiguan Temple, the only one of the three that has not been demolished, yet, told the Global Times that monks and nuns should not live in same temple according to Buddhist doctrine, even if walls are built up to separate the areas.

However, a deputy head of Department of Ethnic and Religious Affairs of Xihu district, surnamed Wang, told the Global Times that the monks and nuns are not to "live together," and they have their own places separate from each other in the temple complex.

Two other abbots agreed with Canci, keen to maintain the independence of their own temples, with a bigger concern that their individual temples and titles cannot be passed down, and will be replaced by another totally different one.

"The older abbot handed the temple over to me and I cannot let it end in my hands," Huiren told the Global Times, noting that she even refused to sign the demolition agreement with the government as she cannot bear the karma brought by demolishing the temple.

Master Chunyi, the head of Buddhist Association of Jiangxi Province, signed the agreement after Huiren wrote a statement giving him the power to sign for her, Nandu Daily reported. Meanwhile, Chunyi could not be reached for comment.

A regulation on religious affairs released by the State Council in 2004 said that when urban planning projects affect religious buildings, demolishers should negotiate with the religious bodies and the demolisher should reconstruct the buildings after all sides agree to the demolition.

No compromise 

A June 6 China National Radio report quoted Li Yunfeng, deputy head of the Party committee of Xihu district as saying that the purpose of the demolition is to push forward the construction of a new area of the district.

The project involves road and infrastructure construction and as the three temples are scattered at different places and small, it is decided that the three temples will be built into one temple to create a "grander effect," Li said.

"If we reconstruct all the three temples separately, it is a waste of land and does not live up to the urban planning standards," Wang said.

He added that the essence of three abbots' objections towards the construction of the new temple involve their individual interests as if they all move to the new bigger temple, they will lose their positions as new abbots and masters in charge of the management of the temple will come in.

Master Kuanxing admitted that he preferred to be an abbot of his temple, but he sees it differently.

"I want to devote myself into building my temple even from every brick and tile. I don't want to rely on anybody else," he said.

Wang said that he understands the feelings masters have to their temples, which he compared to the feeling someone has when they throw away their old mobile phone and buy a new one. But he argued that the construction of the new temple, which has gone through a legal administrative procedure, has already been decided in the city's urban planning and will not be easily compromised just because the monks and nuns disagree with it.

"Any religion should love the country and their activities should be conducted under the leadership of the Party, which is the notion that the masters also have agreed on," Wang said.

As the old temples surrender to local urban planning, there have been high hopes on the construction of the new one.

A statement posted on the official website of the government of Xihu district in January, 2013 said that the "Nanhai Palace" project will be a landmark religious building of the district and a blue print was drawn that states that it will be "a scenic site in the daytime and a spotlight at night."

Wang said that the "Nanhai Palace" was a famous Buddhist temple in the city in ancient times, and rebuilding it will carry forward the city's traditional culture.

Another high-profile case that also stirred controversy and resistance was that of the Xinjiao Temple, a renowned Buddhist site built in 669 in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, which was requested by the local government to demolish some of its buildings in March, 2013, as part of the preparations to apply for UNESCO World Heritage for several Silk Road sites in Shaanxi Province.

"In the current process of urbanization, the administrative power of local government is too overwhelming and requests the submission of other sides, which lacks cultural connotation," Li Xiangping, an East China Normal University sociology professor, told the Global Times, adding that the negotiation process should be highly stressed when it comes to religious bodies, and the notion of "love the country" should not be distorted or used to further local interests.