Baima Temple: an international Buddhist temple garden

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The international Buddhist temple garden [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]

As China's first official temple, Baima Temple - White Horse Temple - is not only the 'the cradle of Chinese Buddhism', but has also become an ideal place to demonstrate unique Buddhist cultures from different countries. The international Buddhist temple garden showcases shrines from foreign countries. Different styles of Buddha halls are magnificent and blend together.

The Indian-style Buddha hall is the first shrine that India has funded and built in a foreign country, which took 5 years and was inaugurated in May of 2010. Then Indian President Pratibha Patil attended the inauguration ceremony. The reason why she chose the west side of the Baima Temple as her location was that the Chinese Buddhism originated from India and came from the west.

The Thai-style Buddha hall is another shrine funded and built by a foreign country following the Indian-style Buddha hall to display the art of engraving. To guarantee the authentic Thai style, the halls' plan, design, and decoration are all undertaken by the Thai side.

The Thai Buddha, enshrined in the hall in 1991, is 7.2 meters high, weighing 6.68 tons and made of gold-plated copper.

The Myanmar-style Buddha hall is the third foreign shrine in the Baima Temple. The president of Myanmar Thein Sein made a special trip to the Baima Temple for the inauguration ceremony of the Myanmar Buddha hall on June 30, 2014.

The core building is a golden pagoda as high as 32.9 meters, modeled after Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, Myanmar. Covered with golden yellow, the pagoda is the highest architecture in the temple. What characterizes the Myanmar-style Buddha hall the most is that all the important parts are decorated with gold, and they look splendid regardless of viewing angles.

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