Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple

USA, California, Hacienda Heights

Hsi Lai means Coming to the West and signifies the dedication of Fo Guang Shan to spreading the teachings of the Buddha to people in the West. The temple is located in Hacienda Heights, near Los Angeles, and is the first branch temple established by Fo Guang Shan in the USA. Master Hsing Yun, founder of Fo Guang Shan, felt the importance of sharing the Dharma with people in the West and thus this temple was completed in 1988. It is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the Western Hemisphere, and it serves as the headquarters for Fo Guang Shan branch temples in North America.
The temple covers 6 ha and the buildings occupy 9,290 sq m. The temple is built in traditional Chinese palatial style with a symmetrical layout. On the central axis there is the main temple gate, Bodhisattva Hall, Great Hero Hall, meditation hall, and the memorial pagoda. On the sides, there are the conference room, an auditorium, and an art gallery.
The main temple gate is three bays wide with the name of the temple written by Master Hsing Yun at the front and the Four Great Bodhisattva Vows at the back. The Bodhisattva Hall has a double-eave hip-and-gable roof. It houses the five Bodhisattvas: Manjusri, Avalokitesvara, Maitreya, Ksitigarbha, and Samantabhadra, with the Diamond Sutra engraved on the walls. The nine-bay wide Great Hero Hall has a double-eave hip roof and contains statues of Sakyamuni Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, and the Medicine Buddha. There are over 10,000 small Buddha statues enshrined along the walls of the hall. The memorial pagoda is located at the highest point and houses a statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.
Opposite the memorial pagoda is the Fo Guang Shan International Translation Center and Buddha’s Light Publishing. It publishes Buddhist books in many languages in order to spread Humanistic Buddhism worldwide.