# Bell Tower


## Architectural Location and Form
In Chinese Buddhist monasteries, the Bell Tower is conventionally placed on the east side of the Hall of Heavenly Kings, forming the “Bell and Drum Towers” with the Drum Tower on the west. It is an iconic side hall in temple regulations. It is usually a two-story traditional timber pavilion, with double eaves, flying corners, blue-gray bricks and tiles, a stable base, and upper windows opening around a suspended bell.
The first floor of the pavilion often contains a hall, while the second floor is open and spacious. A large bronze bell, usually a cast bronze great bell, hangs in the center. A wooden striker is placed beside the bell for monks to ring it. Its size depends on the scale of the monastery. In ancient monasteries, great bells could weigh several thousand jin, and their deep, distant sound could travel for miles.


## Buddhist Symbolism of the Bronze Bell
**Awakening from deluded dreams:** Beings in the world have long sunk into the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion, like people asleep and unable to wake. The booming bell breaks dullness and delusion, warning people to put down attachment and give rise to the mind of practice, as in the saying: “Hearing the bell, afflictions lighten; wisdom grows, and bodhi arises.”
**Dispelling the darkness of ignorance:** The bell’s sound can drive away the darkness of inner demons and also reach the ten Dharma realms, upward to the heavens and downward to the underworld, enabling beings in the six realms to hear the bell, leave suffering, and gain joy.
**Expressing the bodhi mind:** The bell’s sound is broad, bright, and long-lasting, representing the vast and deep bodhi mind. Its unbroken resonance symbolizes compassionate transformation that never ceases.


## Temple Bell-Ringing Rituals and Functions
**Daily morning and evening timekeeping:** Morning bell and evening drum are a thousand-year monastery regulation. In the early morning, the bell is struck first; after dusk, the drum is beaten. The morning bell wakes the monastic community for morning service and gathers body and mind; the evening bell sends away the scattered thoughts of the day and settles the mind for evening practice.
**Blessing and deliverance rites:** During Water-Land Dharma assemblies, deliverance ceremonies, and blessing ceremonies, the great bell is sounded for an extended period to dedicate merit to the deceased and to bring disaster relief and blessings to the living.
**Admonishing practice:** Practitioners hear the bell and reflect inwardly, examining faults of body, speech, and mind, restraining greed and anger, and raising right mindfulness at all times.


## Cultural Extension
In ancient times, there was a saying that “hearing the bell removes offenses.” Those who heard the bell would have past evil karma lightened. Literati often used the sound of bells in poetry and prose, giving monasteries a pure and distant atmosphere. Bell sound also became a unique spiritual symbol of Chinese Buddhist monasteries.


## Bell-Hearing Verse from the Śrāmaṇera Vinaya
Whenever one hears the bell, one joins the palms and silently recites: “Hearing the bell, afflictions lighten; wisdom grows, and bodhi arises; leaving hell, escaping the fire pit; may I become a Buddha and liberate beings. Om, jialadiye, svaha.”