Luohan Temple

The Luohan Temple in Huyi was first built in the early years of Yongping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (58-61 AD), initially named the White Horse Zhaojue Temple. Later, Emperor Hui of the Western Jin Dynasty issued a decree to rebuild and rename it as the 'Xingxiang Temple' (the 'Imperial Decree Stele' is well preserved in the temple) in the first year of Taian (302 AD). The eminent monk Master Pu Jue was invited to the palace as the national teacher, and he was granted a thousand acres of land to build a hundred halls and thousands of tile houses, covering an area of 66 square kilometers. In the Tang Dynasty, it was renamed the 'Zhuangyan Temple'. At that time, 'there were wide halls and pavilions, with a thousand pillars, and the secret scriptures of yoga were widely spread', making it a large-scale Tantric venue. In the third year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1405), it was rebuilt and renamed the Luohan Zen Temple; it was rebuilt many times in later generations, and after several calamities, only the Zhufodian, an ancient wooden structure, remains today. The existing Zhufodian in the temple is five rooms wide and six pillars long, with a hipped roof, and there is a corridor outside that can be accessed all around. It enshrines Sakyamuni Buddha and Zhunti Bodhisattva. There have always been rumors that this building was built in the Yuan Dynasty, but compared with several Yuan Dynasty buildings in and around Guanzhong, it is more likely to be a building from the middle and late Ming Dynasty.