White Horse Temple, Buddhist temple in Luoyang, China

The White Horse Temple is a Buddhist temple in Luoyang, about twelve kilometers east of the city center, featuring five main halls and four courtyards across a 40,000-square-meter (430,556-square-foot) complex. The compound follows a traditional Chinese monastery layout with symmetrical buildings along a central axis, surrounded by gardens and shaded courtyards.

The temple was founded in 68 CE during the Eastern Han Dynasty and marks the first official Buddhist monastery in China following the arrival of the teaching from India. Over the centuries the compound was expanded and restored multiple times, with the current structure dating mainly from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The name comes from the legend of two Indian monks who reached Luoyang in 67 CE with scriptures carried on white horses. The two grey stone horses outside the gate are not those horses: they are Northern Song tomb statues from the tomb of Wei Xianxin, moved here in 1935. The character 寺 in the name originally meant a government ministry, and after this temple it came to mean a monastery.

The compound opens daily from seven thirty in the morning until seven in the evening, and most visitors spend two to three hours exploring the halls and gardens. The entrance is located on a main road with bus connections from the city center, and the paths within the grounds are mostly level and easy to walk.

At the rear of the compound there is an international garden with temples donated by communities from India, Thailand, and Myanmar, each displaying their own building tradition. These sections are often quieter than the main halls and offer a comparison of different Buddhist architectural styles from across Asia.