Great Buddha Temple in Guangzhou: A Piece of Fine Art

#chinaattractions Guangzhou Great Buddha Temple is located at No. 21 Huixin Middle Street, Huifu East Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, adjacent to Beijing Road Pedestrian Street and Guangzhou Department Store.The Great Buddha Temple was founded in the Southern Han Dynasty (917-971 AD). It was originally called Xinzang Temple. After many expansions and name changes, it was finally expanded into Longzang Temple in the Ming Dynasty and changed to the Patrol Office in the Qing Dynasty. In the first year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1649), the Inspectorate Office was destroyed by fire.King Shang Kexi of Pingnan donated his own royal salary to rebuild it in the second year of Kangxi (1663). It was modeled on the standard of the Beijing Normal Official Temple and combined with the Lingnan local style. It was named the Great Buddha Temple. The Great Buddha Temple is named after the three large Buddha statues cast in brass, 6 meters high and weighing 10 tons, enshrined in the middle of the main hall. These Buddha statues are Shakyamuni Buddha, Amitabha Buddha and Maitreya Buddha. The architectural style of the Great Buddha Temple combines traditional and modern elements, with both antique temple buildings and modern-style facilities. The temple has a multi-functional and modern Buddhist cultural complex such as Pilu Hall, Zen Hall, Merit Hall, Chanting Hall, abbot's room, library, Buddhist exhibition hall and vegetarian restaurant, as well as halls such as Guanyin Hall, Jizo Hall, Bell and Drum Tower, Heavenly Heaven Hall and Mountain Gate, with a construction area of more than 30,000 square meters. The Great Buddha Temple is not only a religious place, but also a center of cultural exchange. Every year during traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, the Great Buddha Temple holds temple fairs, pujas and blessing activities, attracting a large number of tourists and believers to participate.In addition, the Great Buddha Temple often holds Buddhist culture lectures and meditation classes to help people gain a deeper understanding of Buddhist culture and the way of meditation.The library of the Great Buddha Temple is a modern Buddhist library open to the public in Guangdong Province. The library has a reading room, an electronic reading room, a data room, a scripture collection room, an audio-visual room, and a circulation office. It has a collection of various Buddhist classics and documents. The Great Buddha Temple was declared a municipal cultural relics protection unit by the Guangzhou Municipal Government in 1993, and a provincial cultural relics protection unit by the Guangdong Provincial People's Government in 2008, and was selected as the "Guangzhou Geographical Names Protection List (First Batch)" in 2023.