Shichidō garan

Which seven halls the term refers to varies, and 七堂 may be a misinterpretation of shitsudō (悉堂), meaning "complete temple".

[4] Garan (伽藍)[5] in Japanese is an abbreviated form of the expression sōgya ranma (僧伽藍摩), itself a transliteration of the Sanskrit saMghaaraama (सँघाराम), literally meaning "garden for monks".

[6] A Japanese garan was originally just a park where monks gathered together with their teacher, but the term later came to mean "Buddhist temple".

The word garan can be found in a record in Nihon Shoki dated 552, although no monastery of this time survives, so we don't know what they were like.

[1] A 15th-century text[12] describes how Zen school temples (Sōtō (曹洞), Rinzai (臨済))[13] included a butsuden or butsu-dō (main hall), a hattō (lecture hall), a kuin (kitchen/office), a sō-dō (building dedicated to Zazen), a sanmon (main gate), a tōsu (toilet) and a yokushitsu (bath).

[14] They gradually lost importance and were replaced by the kondō (golden hall), because of the magic powers believed to lie within the images the building housed.

The layout of four early temples clearly illustrates this trend: they are in chronological order Asuka-dera, Shitennō-ji, Hōryū-ji, and Yakushi-ji.

G Shōrō (鐘楼) A belfry Zuiryū-ji is a Zen temple of the Sōtō sect in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture.

[15] Entering, one can symbolically free him or herself from the three passions of ton (貪, greed), shin (瞋, hatred), and chi (癡, foolishness).

[15] G Shōrō (鐘楼) A belfry H Kuri (庫裏) A building hosting the galleys, the kitchen, and the offices of a Zen garan.