garan　伽藍

KEY WORD :　architecture / general terms

An abbreviated form of sougya ranma 僧伽欄摩 (SK. samgha arama). Lit. A garden for monks. Also rendered as souen 僧園, shuuen 衆園 or shouja 精舎. Park-like places where Buddhist monks gathered with their teachers. The word, garan, which later came to mean temple, tera 寺, when it consisted of a number of buildings, referred to as shichidou 七堂 or *shichidou garan 七堂伽藍, first appears in a record from the reign of Emperor Kinmei 欽明 (539-71), the time during which Buddhism was officially introduced to Japan from the Paekche kingdom in Korea (Jp: *Kudara 百済). Due to the conflict between supporters of the indigenous Shinto beliefs and the supporters of the newly introduced Buddhism, no monastery with a discernible plan, or the ruin of one, survives. Certainly, the Japanese were advised as to the arrangement of monastic buildings from visiting emissaries from Paekche. During the reign of Japanese Emperor Bidatsu 敏達 (572-85), the Paekche king sent a temple architect, six Buddhists and an image maker to Japan in AD 577 according to the NIHONSHOKI 日本書紀. The building of temples began soon after. The temple layout at Shitennouji 四天王寺 in Osaka reflects the plan of Chongyimsa temple in Puyo, the capital of the Paekche kingdom from 538-663.

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*garan haichi 伽藍配置

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