Nanhua Temple

Nanhua Temple is the Zen Buddhist monastery of the 6th Patriarch of Zen Buddhism Hui Neng. It is located 25 km southeast of Shaoguan, China in the small city of Caoxi , which lies in the northern part of Guangdong Province. The temple was founded during the time of the North-South Dynasties in 502 AD by an Indian monk named Zhiyao Sanzang who originally named the site Baolin Temple . It received its present name in 968 during the reign of the Song Dynasty Emperor Taizong. The site was later renovated in 1934 under the leadership of Hsu Yun.

The temple covers an area of more than 42.5 hectares . It consists of a set of magnificent Buddhist buildings, including the Hall of Heavenly Kings, the Grand Hall, Sutra Depository, Sixth Ancestor Hall, Lingzhao Pagoda and 690 Buddhist statues.

The majestic Hall of Heavenly Kings was originally built in 1474 during the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt during the Qing Dynasty . The statue of Maitreya is enshrined in the hall and the mighty statues of the four Heavenly Kings holding religious objects stand on both sides of the statue of Maitreya. Behind the hall is a three-storey bell tower which was constructed in 1301 during the Yuan Dynasty . On top of the bell tower there hangs a brass bell from the Southern Song Dynasty . The massive bell is 2.75 meters high with a diameter of 1.8 meters .

The Grand Hall, constructed during the Yuan Dynasty , stands in the center of the temple. Covered by glazed tiles, it houses the statues of Sakyamuni the Medicine Buddha, and Amitabha, which are situated in the sacrarium of the hall. These gilded figures are all over 8.3 meters high. Within the Grand Hall there are about 500 fine clay sculptures of Buddhist arhats.

The temple holds many precious cultural relics; the most precious being the statue of Hui Neng, which is worshiped in the Sixth Ancestor Hall. There are 360 Buddhist arhats figures which are the only Chinese wooden carvings preserved from the Northern Song Dynasty and a rare cassock trimmed with the dainty embroidery of over 1,000 Buddhist figures.