White Horse Temple is very famous. I thought it should be in the center of Luoyang. Unexpectedly, it felt remote when I took a taxi there. It is located in the east of Luoyang City and on the north side of Luoyang-Baizhou Highway. Maybe it wasn't the peak season when I went there, so there were very few people, and the taxi driver would rather wait for our return outside the door.
The south-facing main entrance of the temple faces Luobai Road, but this gate is not open. You need to enter from a small road on the west side and pass through a small road with jewelry and jade shops on both sides to reach the ticket office and entrance.
Walking towards the entrance, this is the release pond built later.
Enter here
After entering, it suddenly becomes clear.
The White Horse Temple is divided into the Chinese Main Temple, the Qiyun Pagoda Court, the Indian Buddhist Temple Garden, the Thai Buddhist Temple Garden, and the Myanmar Buddhist Temple Garden. This was beyond my expectation. I always thought that the White Horse Temple was a temple located in the city center. , the most popular sacred place of Chinese Buddhism!
After entering from the side door, we first arrive at the mountain gate, which is the Chinese main temple part. This part is very consistent with the temple in our impression.
The mountain gate is not grand and tall. There is actually a statue of a horse next to it.
Enter from the mountain gate and bypass the Tianwang Hall. In front is the Daxiong Hall, and the middle is quite open.
There are still people who burn incense!
both sides
I have been wondering why it is not called "Daxiong Hall", but just "Daxiong Hall". It seems that it is not grand enough.
Look around the temple.
Overall, I feel that the scale of this part is not worthy of the reputation of White Horse Temple!
I checked the information and found out that the White Horse Temple, known as the best temple in the world, is mainly famous for its history and culture.
White Horse Temple, the first ancient temple in China and a world-famous temple (what does this mean?), is located in Luoyang City, Henan Province. It was built in the 11th year of Yongping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (68 AD). It is the first official temple built after Buddhism was introduced into China. It is the origin of Chinese Buddhism and the epitome of world Buddhism. The White Horse Temple spread Buddhism to Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia, making Buddhism popular in Asia. world Various places A holy place visited by Buddhists. Therefore, at the end of the 19th century, Japan donated funds to repair the White Horse Temple bell tower; At the beginning of the 21st century, print Spend , Myanmar Dian , Thai country The government has successively invested in the construction of Buddhist temples in the White Horse Temple, making it the only international temple in the world with Buddhist temples in the styles of China, India, Burma and Thailand. As the most internationalized temple, White Horse Temple can be truly described as “the best temple in the world”. The White Horse Temple is now the first National Key Cultural Relics Protection Protection Unit , the first batch Country A AAA-level tourist attraction .
After looking at the Chinese Main Hospital, there are brand new buildings next to it, with completely different colors and styles. The first thing we entered was the Thai Buddhist Temple Garden, entering from the east gate.
The Thai Buddhist Temple Garden, with the strong support of the Chinese and Thai governments and the Buddhist community, and the care of the late Thai Acting Monk King and abbot of the Golden Mountain Temple in Bangkok, Somdet Paputrazan, was founded by Thailand's great philanthropist Wattana Asa Mr. Wa made it with great sincerity.
Entrance
I don’t know if this horse has anything to do with the White Horse Temple.
The stupa is one of the main buildings of the Thai Temple
Go up to the stupa
To the west of the stupa is the Thai Buddhist Temple
A building like a circulation office next to it
China Hospital in the distance
This is the door we entered
Come down from the stupa.
Big Buddha Hall
Take photos around the Big Buddha Hall.
To the west of the Thai Buddhist Temple Garden is the Myanmar Buddhist Temple Garden, which was funded and built by the Myanmar government. The foundation stone of the project was laid in 2012 and the project was completed in June 2014. On June 30, 2014, a grand "Myanmar Style Pagoda Garden Inauguration Ceremony and Anfeng Consecration Ceremony" was held. President U Thein Sein of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and a delegation of 72 people made a special trip to the White Horse Temple in Luoyang to attend the inauguration ceremony. This Myanmar Garden is to the west of Thailand Garden. The garden is modeled after the Mandalay Palace, with a length of 108 meters from north to south and a width of 65 meters from east to west, with a total area of 7,020 square meters. The east gate is the main entrance, and the main building is the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. It is built after the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon and is 32.92 meters high. The four Buddha statues enshrined in the pagoda are all of Sakyamuni Buddha. Clockwise from the east, they are the Buddha's enlightenment phase, Dharma phase, generosity phase, and Zen concentration phase. There are four large jade carvings inlaid on the walls around the hall, which represent the four sacraments of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, sermon, and nirvana. There are also 8 small jade carvings showing Myanmar's famous pagoda Buddha statues. There is a statue of the Dragon King protecting the Buddha in the northeast of the Shwedagon Pagoda, and a wind-driven stone pagoda in the northwest. There is also a small Buddhist hall built in the southeast of the garden.
The dragon king protecting the Buddha statue at the entrance of the Buddhist temple looks like a snake no matter how I look at it.
Go around the outside on the second floor
Indian Buddhist temple in the south.
Looking back at the south gate of Shwedagon Pagoda
Take a serious photo of the Dragon King
Walk around the first floor of Shwedagon Pagoda
The backlit Dragon King
The stone's failure to fall must be due to man-made effects.
After exiting the Burmese Buddhist Temple Garden, there is the Indian Buddhist Temple Garden to the south. Unfortunately, it is not open to the public, so I can only take pictures of the exterior scenes.
This looks like the style of the Taj Mahal!
From the foreign Buddhist temple part, we have to walk back to the Chinese main hospital. When we go out from the mountain gate of White Horse Temple, there is Qiyun Pagoda Garden on the east side, so we go back to the Chinese main hospital first.
Magic Treasure Pavilion
A group of pilgrims, burning incense is not environmentally friendly at all
Tibetan Scripture Pavilion
Beautiful colleagues walking together
Bell Tower, one of the eight most famous sights in Luoyang - "The Bell of the Horse Temple".
In the description of the Chinese Academy, it is mentioned that the two masters who introduced Buddhism to China have their tombs here. I didn’t see them when I walked along the way. When I walked back, I searched carefully and I actually found them. Behind the Bell Tower is the Tomb of Shemo Teng, and next to the Drum Tower opposite is the Tomb of Zhu Falan.
Inside the mountain gate, we have to go out from here.
Mr. Ma still needs White Horse Temple. This statue is in proportion to a real horse.
Panoramic view of the mountain gate.
Head east to Qiyun Pagoda, which is the only bhikshuni monastery in Henan.
Walk all the way to the Qiyun Tower and circle the tower once
The Great Hall.
White Horse Temple takes about half a day.
In the evening, we went to Luoyang Old Street, which is a commercial street with a somewhat ancient feel and is quite large.