Founded in the eighth year (527) of Emperor Wu of Liangwu's reign, The Hualin Zen Monastery in Guangzhou was the first dojo where the ancient Indian monk Bodhidharma Dongdu came to China to preach, attracting a large number of pilgrims from home and abroad to visit and worship every year. The temple sits on the west and faces the east, and the stone pillars on both sides are carved with couplets: "Huayan world view 100,000 Buddhas, Lin Fei Vulture Mountain Hidden 500 Ying Zhen."
Bodhidharma traveled for three years to China as a missionary, traveling across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and finally arrived in Guangzhou in 526 AD. Later generations of believers revered Dharma as the ancestor of Chinese Buddhism, so they called the place where he landed in that year the first place of Xilai, and it has been used to this day.
Hualin Temple did not have a Great Treasure Hall, so the Five Hundred Arhat Hall became the main hall. Famous for its 160-year-old Arhat Hall, the northernmost part of the hall is dedicated to three Buddhas: Shakyamuni, Medicine Buddha and Amitabha Buddha, and the cloister is flanked by five hundred arhats in different shapes.
The western wall of the Arhat Hall is dedicated to the Bodhisattva of the King of Jizo, and it is worth mentioning that Min Gong and Master Daoming, who originally accompanied the Bodhisattva of the King of Jizo, were replaced by a statue of an Arhat with a broad-brimmed hat, a beard with a thick beard, and a Latin-like appearance.
The 100th Arhat, known as the "Venerable One", was the Italian traveler Marco Polo, who traveled throughout China. Since Marco Polo was not a Buddhist, being enshrined in the Hall of Arhats was incredible and remains an unsolved mystery.
The ancestral hall of the temple enshrines a 6.88-meter-high and 10-ton bronze statue of the world's largest Dharma patriarch, which is exquisitely designed and exquisitely cast, and is solemn and kind for the shape of Meditation.
The plaque above the bronze statue of Dharma Guru reads "One Flower, Five Leaves" in four large characters. This is because Zen Buddhism used Dharma as its ancestor for "one flower", which later developed into five schools: Shu Yang, Linji, Cao Dong, Dharma Eye, and Cloud Gate, which are for the "Five Leaves".
In the 40th year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1701), the Seven Star Rock White Stone Stupa built by the imperial decree was gorgeous and exquisite, and each stone block was edged with green lead, and the structure was strong and still intact. The bottom of the pagoda houses 22 relics of Buddha Shakyamuni, which is the treasure of the town temple of Hualin Zen Temple.
The five-eyed ancient well at the entrance of the archway of Hualin Zen Temple has a history of thousands of years, and is said to have been excavated by Bodhidharma, also known as the "Dharma Well". The "Five Eyes Well" is actually a large well, and in order to enable many people to draw water at the same time, 5 well eyes were built.