Longquan, a Buddhist temple in China, seems quite happy to use the services of a 2 ft (60.96 cm) robot monk to spread Buddhism. Xian’er, the monk bot clad in yellow, can chant Buddhist mantras, perform around 20 preset movements and even interact with people.
His creator, Master Xianfan, based him on a cartoon character he had drawn in 2013 for the cartoon titled Trouble, You Seek for Yourself. However, Xianfan, who is also the head of the temple’s animation studio, told Reuters that Xian’er was not developed for commercial or promotional purposes. “We only wanted to explore how to better fuse Buddhism with science, to convey the message that Buddhism and science aren’t contradictory,” he said.
Initially, Xian’er seemed very uncooperative and would spin around like a child muttering “Leave me alone; stop bothering me”, reported CNN. However, when asked who his parents were, he replied, “Do the designers count?”
The temple enlisted the help of various tech companies and AI experts from various Chinese universities to create Xian’er. They are also working on a newer model of the monk bot which will have a wider range of functions.
Though the Longquan temple accommodates several books by the Chinese president Xi Jingping, Xian’er couldn’t care less about Communism or its ideology. Xian’er told CNN that opening an ice cream stand was his Chinese Dream—a concept similar to the American Dream—frequently used by the Chinese president himself.
