Municipal Historical and Cultural Heritage Protection Unit
"Landing Ground of Dharma" is located on the north of Xiajiu Road, Liwan District, where Hualin Temple is situated. It is one of Guangzhou's top four Buddhist temples and one important historical relic of the cultural exchanges between Indian and Chinese people.
Legend has it that the Indian Monk Bodhidharma crossed the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and finally arrived in Guangzhou after three years of trudge in 526 (the 7th year of Emperor Liangwu's reign) to do missionary work in China. Later generations respected this eminent monk from Western Buddhist kingdom and named his landing place as "Landing Ground of Dharma". More than one thousand years passed, and the name was still in use. The temple Dharma built after his arrival in Guangzhou was called Xilai Monastery. This is the Buddha shrine from where he first spread the Buddhism doctrines. Dharma was later divinized as the founder of the Zen Buddhism in China. Now Cantonese are still respectful of Dharma. Many roads in the neighborhood of Xiajiu Road were named after him, including Xilai Zhengjie, Xilai Houjie, Xilai Xijie, Xilai Dongjie, Xindong Xinjie, etc. After its completion, Xilai Monastery went through several repairs in Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty and Qing Dynasty and changed its name to Hualin Temple.
Hall of Five Hundred Arhats
Hualin Temple has no Great Buddha's Hall, thus the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats becomes the main hall. It was the only hall inside the temple before the completion of Dharma Hall.
The Hall of Five Hundred Arhats faces south with its south-north axle from the hall gate to the statue of the Buddha at the north end. On its East and West sides are corridors, enshrining and worshiping the 500 Arhats on the 1-meter-plus-high pedestals. The original statues were destroyed completely during the "Cultural Revolution". The existing statues were re-sculpted in 1997 according to the drawing of Five Hundred Arhats drawn in Emperor Guangxu's reign in Qing Dynasty and relevant data. The statues of the Arhats are lifelike, in different postures and moods, to which numerous tourists are drawn and it indulgesthem in great pleasures.
Dharma Hall
Dharma Hall was rebuilt in memory of Master Bodhi Dharma in 1990s, facing south. On the stone column in front of the hall is a pair of woodcut antithetical couplets, eulogizing the story of Master Bodhi Dharma coming to China to spread Buddhism. The statue of Bodhi Dharma sits on the white pedestal in the very middle of the north wall of the hall. Two engraving pictures on the east and west walls tell the legendary story of Master Bodhi Dharma taking the sea-voyage eastward to China.
※ Address: Xilai Zhengjie, Xiajiu Lu, Liwan District, Guangzhou City
※ Transportation:
take bus114, 125A, 125, 17, 181, 226, 238, 239, 251, 288A, 288, 297, 521, 552, Express No. 3, Travel Bus No. 2 to Hualin Temple Stop
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