Twelve kilometers east of Luoyang is the Baima (White Horse) Monastery, the first Buddhist temple to be established in China. It is said that one night in the year A.D. 64, Emperor Ming Di of the Eastern Han Dynasty dreamed of a golden man. In the morning, the emperor told his officials what he had seen; and one of the officials said the emperor had dreamed of the Buddha, a god of the West. Then, the emperor sent 18 envoys to Tianzhu (now India) for Buddhist scriptures. In the year A.D. 67, they loaded Buddhist scriptures written in Sanskrit and a portrait of the Buddha Sakyamuni onto a white horse and returned to Luoyang with two Indian monks. When living quarters for them were built in the temple the following year, the temple was renamed Baima (White Horse) Monastery.

Covering an area of 40,000 square meters, the Baima Monastery contains the Hall of the Heavenly King, the Hall of the Giant Buddha, the Mahavira (Great Hero) Hall, the Receiving and Directing to Paradise Hall, the Vairocana Pavilion, and the Qingliang Terrace. The Mahavira Hall is the most magnificent among the halls. Inside the hall, there are lifelike sculptures carved in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), including the Buddha of the Past, Present, and Future (Kasyapa, Sakyamuni, and Maitreya), two Heavenly Kings, and 18 arhats (enlightened saintly men). The Baima Monastery has also conserved more than 40 stone tablets carved in the past dynasties. The most precious tablet is the one that carries the story about the construction of the monastery.