White Horse Temple

The temple derived its name from the historic story that two Indian monks carried Buddhist scriptures and statues on white horses to the Eastern Han capital Luoyang. Different from other single-style ancient temples, it combines traditional Chinese central-axis Buddhist architecture with exotic international Buddhist palaces from Thailand, Myanmar, India and Sri Lanka, creating a cross-cultural religious landscape. Core highlights include the Song Dynasty stone white horse sculptures at the mountain gate, five main halls along the central axis, the treasure of the temple — 23 dry-lacquered Buddha statues of the Yuan Dynasty in Mahavira Hall, Qingliang Terrace (the earliest sutra translation site in China), the exotic four-nation international Buddhist complex and the ancient Qiyun Pagoda courtyard. It is an ideal destination for Buddhist pilgrimage, religious cultural study, ancient architecture appreciation and Hanfu photography. It can be matched with Longmen Grottoes, Laojun Mountain and Yingtianmen Site to form a classic Luoyang historical and cultural one-day tour route.