(1) Back in 2007, I visited Guiyuan Temple at night during a one-day business trip to Wuhan. This front gate was as far as I got that time; a great master had just died, though, and there was lots of activity, with people going in and out to pay respects.
At last, on this visit I got to see the inside the grounds and halls. (I stayed three nights just a few steps from this gate.)
(2) This is the view of the main altar, as seen from where I said my prayers.
(3) On the back wall (on either side of the back doors) were these two carved and painted wooden reliefs of the two bodhisattvas often seen flanking the Buddha: Pu Xian on the elephant, and Wen Shu on the lion.
(4) Next to the main hall, another compound (with its own screen wall, seen here) contained a 500 arhat hall.
(5) I've seen a lot of 500 arhatses, but I've never seen this: an arhat in a quilt, dreaming of the Buddha.
(6) Behind the arhat hall is this colossal Guanyin, and next to it a new building is going up, larger than any currently on the property.
(7) That Guanyin in the last picture is two-faced, a motif I would see again.
(8) I suspect this stupa may be for the great monk who died at the time of my visit in January 2007; I'll have to check into it.
(9) Over on the other side of the temple, these Guanyins are among the discarded statues gathered at the temple for eventual ritual destruction.
(10) The Sutra Repository has an unusual shape.
(11) I had lunch in a good veg restaurant on the property. Downstairs was this delivery bike. I could imagine a slogan: "The Buddha: We Deliver!"
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Last Updated August 20, 2019
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