- Chuang Yen Monastery
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Coordinates: 41°29′00″N 73°47′40″W / 41.4833333°N 73.79444°W
Chuang Yen Monastery 
Kuan Yin Hall at the Chuang Yen Monastery. Information Denomination Pure land Country United States Website http://www.baus.org/baus/about_us/intro_cym.html
Kuan Yin Hall at the Chuang Yen Monastery.
Chuang Yen Monastery (Chinese: 莊嚴寺; pinyin: Zhuāngyán Sì; literally "solemn monastery") is a Pure Land buddhist monastery in Carmel, New York. The monastery was built and is maintained by the Buddhist Association of the United States on land donated by C. T. Shen. His autobiography, My Memoir is published by The Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions and is distributed free at the monastery.
The monastery grounds contain several prayer halls, dormitories, a dining hall, a memorial area, and a library. Most of the buildings are built in an imitation of Tang dynasty architecture, and the main hall contains a 37-foot statue of the Buddha Vairocana, encircled by 10,000 small statues of the Buddha on a lotus terrace. The larger Buddha statue is said to be the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
They hold also seminars and summer camps in both the English and Chinese languages.
Library
The monastery is home to more than one library collection.
Reportedly, the Woo Ju Memorial Library has a collection of "2,500 books in Chinese, [and] 1,000 books in English",[1] --not mentioning collections in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, or other languages. Some websites report the size of the collection at 73,764 books.[2] Until 2006, the library was home to the collections and offices of the Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions--but it is unclear if this now operates out of its offices in New York City, or has ceased to exist, as its collections were reportedly donated to the University of Virginia in (ca.) 2006.[3] At present (2009), the website for the Institute is blank or empty.[4]
The library is named after the wife of C.T. Shen.
References
- ^ http://www.baus.org/baus/about_us/cym_library.shtml
- ^ http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/9485/listofislamiclibraries.html&date=2009-10-25+06:21:08, q.v. Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions Library entry.
- ^ www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/mgrps/cmds/grps/chi/06rpts/06_UV.doc
- ^ http://www.iaswr.org/
External links
Buddhism Buddhism portal Categories:- Buddhist monasteries in the United States
- Pure Land monasteries
- Buildings and structures in Putnam County, New York
- Visitor attractions in Putnam County, New York
- New York building and structure stubs
- Buddhist monastery stubs
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