The Eternal Jinshan Temple

Synopsis

Jinshan Temple is the only Buddhist temple built on water in China, which dates back to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), almost a thousand years in the past. Observant Buddhist believers often converge here to perform a rite known as "fangsheng", or "life release", which refers to the practice of saving animals from captivity and releasing them into the water. The film tries to form a slice of the history of this eternal artificial architecture through ecology, geography and folklore. A Gopro camera was tied to a turtle that was released in the river to inspect the underwater space of the temple.