Nanhua Monastery is a Buddhist monastery of the Chan School, one of Five Great Schools of Buddhism where Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, once lived and taught. It is located 25 km southeast of Shaoguan, China in the town of Caoxi, within Qujiang District.
　　The temple was founded during the time of the North-South Dynasties in 502 AD by an Indian monk named Zhiyao Sanzang. It received its present name in 968 during the reign of the Song Dynasty Emperor Taizong. Ancestor Hanshan Deqing taught there and reformed the monastery in the 16th century. The site was later renovated in 1934 under the leadership of Hsu Yun whose body is housed in the central forest sanctuary.
　　The temple covers an area of more than 42.5 hectares. It consists of a set of magnificent Buddhist buildings, including the Hall of Heavenly Kings, the Grand Hall, Sutra Depository, Sixth Ancestor Hall, Lingzhao Pagoda and 690 Buddhist statues. There are 9 Chinese swamp cypresses believed to be 400 to 500 years old in the temple.
　　The majestic Hall of Heavenly Kings was originally built in 1474 during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) and rebuilt during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). The statue of Maitreya Bodhisattva is enshrined in the hall and the mighty statues of the four Heavenly Kings holding religious objects stand on both sides of the statue of Maitreya.
　　The Grand Hall, constructed during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), stands in the center of the temple. Covered by glazed tiles, it houses the Buddha statues of Sakyamuni Buddha, Medicine Buddha, and Amitabha.
　　The temple holds many precious cultural relics; the most precious being the statue of Hui Neng, which is worshiped in the Sixth Ancestor Hall and the body of Han Shan.