The White Horse Temple (Baima Si) in Luoyang, Henan Province, was the first Buddhist temple in China, established by Emperor Mingdi in the year 68 AD. The historic, leafy site features several ancient buildings and a highly devotional atmosphere.

The temple was established by the Han Dynasty in 68 AD when Buddhism started to spread, this temple is believe to be the first Buddhist temple built by the government in China.

In the year 64 of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), Emperor Ming sent a delegation of his men to study Buddhism in the western world. After three years, two eminent Indian monks, She Moteng and Zhu Falan, came back with the delegation. They brought with them a white horse carrying Buddhist sutras and Buddhist figures on its back. This was the first time that Buddhism appeared in China.

To express his thanks to the two monks and their white horse, the emperor ordered the building of a monastery which he named the White Horse Temple during the following year. During this time, the two monks were busy translating sutras in the temple until they completed the Chinese sutra ‘Forty-two Chapter Sutra’, which attracted many monks and meant that the temple became a centre for Buddhist activity in China. It is for this reason that the temple is honored as the ‘Founder’s Home’ and the ‘Cradle of Buddhism in China’.

The highlight of the temple includes two stone horses standing on either side of the entrance, and the tombs of the two Indian monks lying in the first courtyard.

Evidence of the devotional importance of the White Horse Temple can be seen throughout the compound: offerings of fruit pile on the altars, multicolored clothes hang from the ceilings, lighted candles float in basins of water and gusts of incense rise from the burners in the courtyards.

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