BEIJING, Jan. 7 -- Sitting comfortably in front of the newly opened Hall of Sakyamuni in the glow of the sunset, Shi Yanshuo wistfully envisions the completion of the Towers of Bell and Drum on the busy construction site sprawling southward.

    "It's exciting thinking of the future. In 10 years, the Donglin Temple will probably resume its glory under the flagship of the Shaolin Temple," beams the 27-year-old monk.

    Behind the renovation of the Donglin Temple is a well-designed cultural map of the Shaolin Temple, which has risen in the past two decades from a state of decay to a giant complex.

    Shi feels grateful to his master Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin, as "he defines the right orientation for Donglin."

Late last year, Shaolin monks went to Kunming and took over the operational management of Tuzhu, Fading, Miaozhan and Guanyin temples.(Photo: Shanghai Daily) Photo Gallery>>>

    Located on the southwest edge of Zhengzhou, provincial capital of central China's Henan Province, Donglin has a 1,800-year history that dates back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD).

    Important to Buddhist tradition, Donglin was once regarded as one of the four major temples in Henan, along with Shaolin, Xiangguo and Baima (White Horse) temples.

    But its reputation has declined sharply since the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). When General Feng Yuxiang governed Henan in the 1920s, he ordered that Donglin be stripped of its religious functions and transformed into a public school.

    During the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), the temple was destroyed with the exception of the Palace of the Heavenly King and a pagoda built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

    "It is sorrowful to see such a recognized temple in ashes," sighs Shi. In recent times, the temple has hosted neither visitors nor worshipers.

    The temple's course was reversed after the visit of Shi Yongxin in the late 1990s, when he was invited to serve as Donglin's abbot.

    In 2005, Abbot Shi revealed a plan to rebuild a brand-new temple on the ruins of Donglin, covering more than 81 hectares, or 10 times larger than the original.

    The estimated cost of construction is 300 million yuan (US$44 million).