Pou Tsai Sim Yun, commonly called Kun Iam Hall (Goddess of Mercy Avalokitesvara) was built in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, which has a history of more than six hundred years. The temple has imposing dwellings with spacious quadrangles one leading into another. Apart from its long history, the Kun Iam Temple was the place where the unequal Sino-American treaty "Mong Ha (Wangxia) Treaty" was signed in Chinese modern history. It possesses the features of China's famous mountains and ancient temples.
The whole temple was built after the Buddhist architectural fashion in the peasant plumes style. The facade of it is very imposing and is one of the existing largest temples with the longest history. The first hall is one of the existing largest temples with the longest history.
The first hall is the Precious Hall of the Great Hero (the main hall of a Buddhist temple, in which Sakyamuni is the central figure of a triad enthroned upon lotus pedestals) rightly facing the Sim Yun, solemn and magnificent. The eaves and the raws of tiles on the roofs are inlaid with glazed tiles of the Ming Dynasty. The exquisitely inlaid porcelain figurines from Shiwan are remarkably lifelike.
In the hall Triratna (the triad of the Buddha, the dharma and the sangha) are consecrated, the golden body of which stands about 5.94 meters high, one of them is Buddhist patriarch has a beautiful patina and an air of great antiquity with a history of more than 150 years.
The next hall is the Buddhist Hall of Longevity, where Avolokitesvara (carvied out of a piece of camphor wood) is enshrined. The main hall is flanked by 18 arhats, exquisitely carved with great craftsmanship in lifelike appearance. The arhats standing on the left with the eyes protruding and high-bridged noses and woolly hair look very much like westerners. It is said that Marco Polo a Venetian of Italy studied and practiced the theory of Buddhism when he was in China.
Kun Iam Hall is the main Hall of the Pou Tsai Sim Yun. On every occasion of the birthday of the Goddess of Mercy many worshippers with great faith come in succession with joss sticks and candles burning at the Hall. It is indeed a great occasion. Beside it, there is a small courtyard, in which a potted landscape stays in the lotus pond around the garden, its growing morpology is rather unique and survived decades of years and its branches grow interwovenly in to a Chinese character: "Longevity".
Legends have it that touching the word Longevity, the Buddhist devotees could live up to one hundred years.
Believe it or not. There are a granite table and four benches at the back garden of the Pou Tsai Sim Yun. When the national power of the Qing Government was declining, the great powers laid a covetous eye on China. And the Sino-American "Wong Ha (Wangxia) Treaty" was signed in 1844 between the US representative and the Chinese imperial commissioner, forcing China to open up ports for trade, enlarged the US consular jurisdiction, etc.
In addition, there is a huge banyan tree over a hundred years old at the back garden named as "Tree with branches interlocked" with its implied meaning as : We wish to fly in heaven, two birds with wings of one. And to grow together on earth, two branches of one tree (used in poetry as an epithet for a loving couple). It is told long long ago that a loving couple who were opposed to the arranged marriage both committed suicide. They were buried in the same grave after their death and on top of it grew a tree, showing their love remained solid as a rock and never part with each other till death.
