Temple of the white Horse

The temple of the white Horse or Báimǎ Sì (if: 白马寺; will tra: 白馬寺) of Luoyang, China, is a monastic complex Bouddhique located in the suburbs is modern city, with the site where, according to the tradition, stopped in 67 a. J. - C. the bearing horse since the Afghanistan the first Soutra S. constructions and objects which it contains date primarily from the period going of the Jin in the middle of the Qing (XIIe-XVIIIe centuries) and include/understand in particular a whole of statues of Laque of the time Yuan (1271-1368). It forms part since 1961 protected cultural heritage.

Other temples bore or bear still the same name. Some directly refer to Baimasi de Luoyang, others could be named independently.

History

According to the Livre of Han posterior , it is in 64 that the emperor Mingdi of the Dynastie Han saw in dream a being haloed light to arrive by the airs since the west. The minister Zhong Hu having proposed that it was about a god called Bouddha, the emperor would have sent towards the India in the search of his effigy a delegation of eighteen people carried out by Cai Yin (蔡愔), Qin Jing (秦景) and Wang Zun (王遵). It seems that they stopped in Afghanistan at the Yuezhi, from where they returned in 67 in company of the Indian monks Kasyapamatanga and Dharmavanya (or Dharmaraksa). They brought effigies of the Buddha and the Sūtra in forty-two articles , first Buddhist text arrived to China according to the tradition.

In 68, the monks were placed on order of the emperor in the administrative buildings - original direction of the term if - Honglu (鴻臚寺) where were accommodated the foreign monks, who became thus the first Buddhist establishment of China. The place is mentioned for the first time under the name of white horse in the writings of Zhu Fahu (竺法護) of the Western Jin. Yang Xuanzhi (楊衒之) of the Wei of North locates it at the south of the imperial avenue of Luoyang, at three Li S of the door Xiyang or Xiyong (西陽門/西雍門), and reports the legend of its name: the site of the temple would have been decided by the horse which accompanied the monks, who stopped Net little before the capital, refusing to go front; the white horses are in the Buddhist tradition the means of transport of will soutras and the religious objects.

Baimasi was used as center for the diffusion of Buddhism and the translations, of which the first Vinaya translates by Dharmakala (曇柯迦羅) and the Sutra of the gilded lunière translates by the Koutchéen Tanwuchen (曇無讖) into 258. It was one of the temples most attended under Wei of North. Under the Tang, the empress Wu Zetian named her favorite Nie Huaiyi (薛怀义) at her head and made it increase in 685. It was once again increased in 1555 under the Ming, then restored in 1713 under the Qing. Forsaken at the beginning of the Republic, it was registered in 1961 on the first list of cultural heritage protected from the Popular republic of China. After the Cultural revolution, it was restored in 1972 to then accommodate the prince Sihanouk in exile. In 1983, it was recognized like one of the most important Buddhist vestiges of the country and was returned to its religious function, supplemented of a tourist function.

The field

The field of the temple, accessible from the station from Luoyang by the line of bus 56, extends on nearly 4 hectares. The unit, which according to the ideal of the Fengshui rests on north against a hill and fact face with the south in direction of the Luo river, is composed of constructions aligned according to a North-South axis and appendices laid out in a generally symmetrical way.

Principal buildings of the south in north

the gantry of entry with three openings carries the characters Baimasi traced by the first president of the Buddhist patriotic Association, Zhao Puchu (趙樸初) (1907-2000). The horses hones some which accommodate since 1935 the visitors in front of the gantry come from the tomb of the marshal Wei Xianxin (魏咸信) of the Song of North.
After the gantry is the tombs of the two monks Kasyapamatanga (in the east) and Dharmavanya (in the west), decorated steles of the time Ming (1634) and flanked appendices traditional of the Buddhist temples, the buildings of the Bell and Drum.
the house of the celestial Kings (天王殿) comes from the transformation under Ming of the gantry of origin. It shelters an effigy of the Buddha Maitreya accompanied by four King-guards and General-guard Weituo.
the house of the Great Buddha (大佛殿), principal building, date of Ming (~1555). Part of its walls takes again the techniques of masonry of the Han time. It shelters the effigies of the Buddha Shakyamuni, of the Bodhisattva S Manjusri and Samantabhadra, as well as disciples of the Buddha Ananda and Mahakashyapa. With the back an effigy of Avalokiteshvara is. With the south-eastern angle a bell of 2,5 tons is going back to 1555, whose sound was one of the “eight celebrities of Luoyang”. It still resounds each year for the January first.
the house Mahavira (大雄殿), largest, was the principal building under Tang. Rebuilt starting from Yuan, it shelters the most famous statues of the place: Buddhas of the three worlds (Shakyamuni, Bhaisajyaguru and Amitabha), like two general-guards and a group of the Eighteen luohans. These works in lacquer of the museum of the Palate of Beijing dating from the Yuan dynasty were installed in Baimasi in 1972. One can also see in the house 5056 niches sheltering each one a miniature of Buddha.
the house of Guidance the paradise of [[pure ground]] (接引殿), victim of a fire to the era Tongzhi then rebuilt at the era Guangxu, shelters the effigies of the Amitabha Buddha accompanied by the bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta.
the terrace of the Claire Fraîcheur (清涼台), to 6 meters in height for a surface of 42,8m X 32,4 m, would go back partly from Han. It supports the house Vairocana (毗卢阁) which shelters the effigies of the Three saints of Huayan: the Buddha Vairocana accompanied by the bodhisattvas Manjusri and Samantabhadra. The unit includes/understands appendices: basin, statues of the two monks founders, a small library, a “sacristy” and a building sheltering a Buddha of Thailand offered by religious organizations inhabitants of Thailand and private givers, as well as a Buddha offered by the Indian government .

Other elements

principal the appendices of the unit are, of the east coast, the buildings reserved to the monks and to the hosts of the temple as well as the halls of the Abstinence and the Prayers; west coast, halls of the Founders, Meditation and Sermon.
To some 250 m of the temple is the pagoda of Qiyun (齐云塔) (25 m, 13 stages). Built out of wood between the end of Tang and the Five dynasties (beginning of the 10th century), it was burnt at the time of the wars of the end of Song (beginning of the 12th century) then rebuilt out of brick in 1175 pennies Jin.
the field of the temple contains forty steles carrying of the texts of authors of various times commemorating the temple and its events. Most famous is that carrying a text of the calligrapher Zhao Mengfu of the dynasty Yuan (1333).

References and notes

Random links: