The Holy land of the Shaolin

Located 12km east to the ancient capital (chin.: laocheng 老城) city of Luoyang (chin.: 洛阳), Henan Province (chin.: 河南省), facing the Luo River (chin.: Luohe洛河) in the south and sitting back to the Mang Hill (chin.: Mangshan 邙山) in the north, is a temple, with red walls, exquisite halls and a towering pagoda amid green pines and cypress groves, appearing solemn and silent. This is the antiquity monastery of the White Horse Temple (chin.: Baimasi白马寺), the first Buddhist monastery in China, honored as “the Founder’s Home” (chin.: zuting祖庭) and “the Cradle of Buddhism in China” (chin.: shiyuan释源).

According to historical records (chin.: houhanshu 后漢書) of the Eastern Han dynasty (chin.: donghan 東漢 25-220), in A.D. 64, the Seventh year of Yong Ping (chin.:永平七年), Emperor Ming (chin.: han mingdi 漢明帝) dreamed of a pearlescent Gold God coming from the west flied around a temple in circles. On the next day, he told what he dreamed to his ministers (chin.: dachen大臣). His minister Fu Yi (chin.: 傅毅), explained that the deity of the dream was probably the Buddha in India. Hearing that, the emperor sent a delegation of eighteen members headed by Cai Yin (chin.: 蔡愔), Qin Jing (chin.: 秦景) and Wang Zun (chin.: 王遵) to seek Buddha dharma to the Western Region (chin.: xiyu 西域).

In Tianzhu (chin.: 天竺), as India (chin.: 印度) was called that time, the envoy met two eminent monks from the Yueshi (chin.: 月氏) country, what is now Afghanistan (chin.: 阿富汗), Kasyapa Matanga (chin.: Ye Moteng 葉摩騰) and Dharmaraksha (Chin.: Zhu Fa Lan 竺法蘭). The envoy invited them back to China to do missionary work and propagate Buddhism (chin.: chuanjiao 傳教). On the way to Luoyang, Buddhist Scriptures (chin.: Fojing 佛經) and the figure of Buddha, as Sakyamuni Statue (chin.: Shijiamouni xiang 釋迦牟尼像) were carried by two white horses (chin: baima 白马). 

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