Dafo Temple (Guangzhou)

Dafo Temple
大佛寺
The shanmen at Dafo Temple
Religion
Affiliation	Buddhism
Sect	Chan
District	Yuexiu District
Prefecture	Guangzhou
Province	Guangdong
Location
Country	China
Shown within Guangdong Show map of Guangdong Dafo Temple (Guangzhou) (China) Show map of China
Prefecture	Guangzhou
Geographic coordinates	23°07′44″N 113°16′27″E / 23.12895°N 113.274286°E / 23.12895; 113.274286
Architecture
Founder	Liu Yan
Date established	Southern Han dynasty (907–971)
Website
www.dafosi.org

The Dafo Temple (Chinese: 大佛寺; pinyin: Dàfó Sì; literally Grand Buddha Temple) is a Buddhist temple in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Located in Yuexiu District, Dafo Temple is a grand temple with a history of more than one thousand years and was built by Emperor Liu Yan in the Southern Han dynasty (917–971). It has been praised as one of the "Five Largest Temples of Guangzhou" in history. Later it was destroyed and rebuilt many times. In the late Ming dynasty, the temple was declining day by day and was devastated by the war while Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao conquered Guangdong in 1649. During the reign of the Kangxi Emperor in 1663, the temple was rebuilt and expanded by Shang Kexi continuously. According to the national policy of free religious belief, the temple was approved by the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government to be restored as a Buddhist temple in 1981. Then Master Guangming, vice-president of the Guangzhou Buddhist Association, served as abbot; he tried to revitalize Dafo Temple and restore the style of the large temple. On August 9, 1993, Dafo Temple was put on the list as a Municipality Protected Historic Site by the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government.^[1]