Arhat Hall

The Arhat Hall is a hall used for enshrining an arhat or arhats in Chinese Buddhist temples.^[1] Arhat is another term for Arahant, one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved Enlightenment and liberated from the endless cycle of rebirth.^[1] In Mahayana Buddhism, arhats rank the third position in Buddhism, only below the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.^[1] In Theravada Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama or The Buddha is the first of the arahats, while his disciples who reach the goal by following his noble path also become arahats.^[2]

In smaller Buddhist temples, statues of the Eighteen Arhats, the original followers of Gautama Buddha, are usually enshrined within the hall.^[1] In larger Buddhist temples, the Arhat Hall typically enshrines statues of all the Five Hundred Arhats [zh], a larger grouping which encompasses other Buddhist deities such as Hayagriva and Yamantaka who take the forms of arhats.^[1] In addition, statues of the four main Bodhisattvas in Chinese Buddhism, namely Guanyin, Ksitigarbha, Samantabhadra and Manjusri are often enshrined as well, along with the Wisdom King Mahamayuri.^[1][3][4]

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  Arhat Hall in Hualin Temple in Guangzhou, China
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  Statues of Eighteen Arhats at Lingsheng Temple in Hunan, China.
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  Statues of Eighteen Arhats at Lingsheng Temple in Hunan, China.
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  Statue of Amitabha riding on a peacock at the centre and the Thousand-armed Guanyin at the rear of the Five Hundred Arhat Hall of Baoguang Temple in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China

• Zi Yan (2012). "Xiantong Temple in Mount Wutai, Shanxi Province". Famous Temples in China (in English and Chinese). Hefei, Anhui: Huangshan Publishing House. ISBN 978-7-5461-3146-7.

• Wang Guixiang (2016-06-17). 《中国汉传佛教建筑史——佛寺的建造、分布与寺院格局、建筑类型及其变迁》 [The History of Chinese Buddhist Temples] (in Chinese). Beijing: Tsinghua University Press. ISBN 9787302427056.
• Zhang Yuhuan (2014-06-01). 《图解中国佛教建筑、寺院系列》 [Illustration of Chinese Buddhist Architecture and Temples] (in Chinese). Beijing: Contemporary China Publishing House. ISBN 9787515401188.