Guiyuan Temple

Guiyuan Temple, situated on Cuiwei Street of Hanyang district, is one of the four largest Buddhist temples in Hubei Province as well as an important Buddhist temple in China. It is the leading temple in Wuhan with prosperous public worship, flourishing Buddhist ceremony and many pilgrims.

Covering an area of 46,900 square meters with a floor space of 20,000 square meters, Guiyuan Temple was first built in the early Qing dynasty (1644-1911) by two monks - Baiguang and Zhufeng. The temple was destroyed and rebuilt several times in its history the current one was last renovated in 1979.

Guiyuan Temple is well known for its grand architecture, Buddhist scriptures, The statues of Weito (the temple guardian) carved of oak, the 500 disciples of Buddha ( arhat) with various looks and gestures. The temple mainly consists of Daxiongbaodian Hall, Arhat Hall, Sutra Collection Pavilion, etc.

In the Daxiongbaodian Hall, there is a statue of Sakyamuni, founder of Buddhism.
On the right is a statue of Mahakasyapa, one of the ten disciples of Sakyamuni.
On the left is a statue of Ananda. Dressed as a monk, he often appears together with Mahakasyapa in front of Sakyamuni.

In the Arhat Hall, there are 500 arhat statues in full length and with various vivid looks and gestures. The scripture hall of the temple keeps more than 7000 volumes of Buddhist Writings.

In 1956, Guiyuan Temple was listed as a preserved antiques unit of Hubei province and in 1983, it was appointed as one of the key Buddhist temple of Han nationality district in China by the State Council.