Arhat Temple – Activities, Architecture, Custom Feature

Arhat Temple, an ancient Buddhist temple and monastery, stands in the downtown area of Chongqing Municipality and just 10 minutes' walk from the Liberation Monument. It is one of key Buddhist temples of Han nationality, which is also a Buddhist institution of Chongqing Municipality. The Arhat Temple formerly knows as Zhiping Temple as first built in the North Song Dynasty (1064 – 1067) and then changed to the current name in Qing Dynasty reign of Emperor Guangxu, for the Arhat Front Hall collapsed during the Qing Dynasty reign of Emperor Qianlong (in 1752).

Arhat Temple – Architecture

The temple is mainly composed of the Stele Kiosk of the Ming Dynasty, the Four Guardians of the World as well as inscriptions on the ancient Buddhist cliff during the Northern Song Dynasty. The most attractive feature in the temple is a long corridor of the rock carvings in the Song Dynasty. In addition, you can still appreciate the grand Sakyamuni Hall and Meditation Room.

The characters of "Arhat Temple" in Chinese were carved by Chengdu Zhifu (a kind of position of ancient Chinese government) Ji Yingxiong in Qing Dynasty reign of Kangxi. The main attraction is the impressive entrance of the temple decorated with hundreds of terracotta sculptures.

Arhat Temple – Custom Feature

There are five hundred Arhat statues with different kinds of postures, some fat, some emaciated, some have round face, some have a slender body, some white, and some pale, some smiles, and some stare tongue-tied etc. Visitors could have a drink of tea in the front hall inside Arhat Temple, or listen to scriptures in Law Hall.

You can have a vegetarian food in "Wu Guan Hall" inside Arhat Temple, with many Buddhist style dishes that are imitated meat dishes made from different types of soy product. You can get all the wonderful spices of Chongqing here without the meat. It's a wonderful surprise to a meat lover like me. If you are lucky enough, you are able to have a taste of unique flavor of "La Ba porridge" on Lunar early December eight. Laba is celebrated on the eighth day of the last lunar month, referring to the traditional start of celebrations for the Chinese New Year. "La" in Chinese means the 12th lunar month and "ba" means eight. This kind of porridge is actually for Buddha. You could able be persuaded to have three bowls of it to exempt for calamity.

Arhat Temple – Activities

Arhat Temple is opened to public from 8:30 to 17:00 everyday with dozens of monks. Hold religion activities on Lunar New Year's Day and Lunar fifteen.