White Horse Temple, located on the side of National Highway 310, White Horse Temple Town, Luolong District, Luoyang City, Henan Province, was built in the 11th year of Yongping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 68). It is the first official temple built after Buddhism was introduced into China. It is the “source of release” and “ancestral court” of China, Vietnam, North Korea, Japan and European and American countries.
The White Horse Temple spread Buddhism to North Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia, making Buddhism popular in Asia, and later entered Europe and America, becoming a holy place for Buddhist believers around the world to visit. Therefore, since the end of the 20th century, Japan has donated money to rebuild the clock tower of the White Horse Temple and erect the statue of the empty sea; The governments of Thailand, India and Myanmar have successively contributed to the construction of the White Horse Temple, making it the only international temple in the world with Chinese, Indian, Myanmar and Thai style Buddhist temples. South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia all came here to take the precepts, and the United States, Germany and Canada all attended the promotion ceremony of the abbot of the temple. As the most internationalized temple, the White Horse Temple is worthy of the name of “the first temple in the world”.
The cultural relics in the White Horse Temple mainly include two Sakyamuni Buddhist relics, ancient Chinese Buddhas, and the 18 Arhat of the Yuan Dynasty. The annual “Horse Temple Bell” activity of the White Horse Temple is a special symbol of human blessing, farewell to the old and welcome to the new. It has attracted many foreign tourists and has been selected among the “Eight Sceneries of Luoyang”.
On March 4, 1961, the White Horse Temple was announced by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In 1983, the White Horse Temple was identified by the State Council as the national key temple of Han Buddhism. In January 2001, Luoyang White Horse Temple was named as one of the first AAAA scenic spots by the National Tourism Administration.
The ancient building area of the White Horse Temple faces south and faces north, with a central axis symmetry pattern, regular layout and clear priorities. The main buildings in the temple are distributed on the central axis. From south to north, there are the mountain gate, the Heavenly King Hall, the Buddha Hall, the Mahavira Hall, the reception hall and the cooling platform. On both sides, there are bell and drum tower, gate hall, cloud water hall, guest hall, dining hall, ancestral hall, Zen hall, abbot’s courtyard and other ancillary buildings.