Core Attractions of Digou Ecological Tourism Scenic Area

The Hall of Five Hundred Arhats is situated beneath the Mahavira Hall. The "Five Hundred Arhats" is the shortened name for Five Hundred Arahants, referring to five hundred Hearers who have attained the fruition of Arahantship.

Arhat is the abbreviated transliteration of the Sanskrit term Arahant, originally denoting the highest spiritual fruition attainable through practice in Theravada Buddhism. The statues housed in the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats inside Zhuyin Temple are complete and fully carved from whole camphor wood. Breaking free from the stereotyped identical facial features of traditional clay Buddhist sculptures, this massive wood carving group integrates Buddhist culture with modern artistic expression while drawing inspiration from real social life. The Hall of Five Hundred Arhats here is hailed as "a dazzling pearl in China’s treasure trove of sculptural art".

Zhuyin Temple was originally named Guanyin Temple. According to the Yingzhou Prefecture Records, severe floods and epidemics ravaged the land in the 2nd year of the Daoguang reign (1822). Two bhikkhunis from Mount Putuo came to the Digou area to treat the sick and propagate Buddhist teachings to benefit local people. Grateful for their kindness, villagers raised funds to build Guanyin Temple, which was burnt down in a fire at the end of the Guangxu reign (1901). Local gentry pooled money to rebuild it on a grand scale in the late Qing Dynasty.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Master Miaoshan took charge of the temple, which then boasted 11 halls and dozens of Buddha statues. One breezy night, a halo of Buddha’s light appeared around the temple accompanied by unceasing rustling sounds of bamboo—a miraculous sight that inspired the renaming of the temple to Zhuyin Temple (Temple of Bamboo Melodies). All temple buildings were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In 1999, over a dozen Buddhist disciples spent years soliciting alms to reconstruct Zhuyin Temple on its original site.