Baoguang Temple

The

Baoguang Temple

  is one of the oldest and biggest Buddhist temples in China. Baoguang means "divine light" in Chinese. The name is derived from Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty that one night he felt very sad because of the unrest in the capital Xi'an, so he went out to walk alone, later he saw the divine light came out from the lower part of the temple. He was so surprised, and then he asked the master of the temple why. The master answered, "This is the light from the Shelizi (which is a kind of Buddhist relic). It is a good omen for Your Majesty. The rebellion in Xi'an is ceased !" The emperor was so glad for that, so he asked the monks to excavate. Surprisingly, they found 13 crystal-clear Shelizis in the temple.

The Arhat Hall is the oldest and largest of its kind in China. It was established in the year (1851) of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty consisting of 59 golden Buddhist and 518 gilded Arhat statues. All of these are having approximately 2 m of height. The statues here are carved as if they are demonstrating many praying postures.

There are a lot of Buddhist cultural heritage that are worth seeing inside the

Baoguang Temple