Turn off the highway at Ukiah, cross a small bridge toward the eastern edge of the valley, and you enter an expanse of meadows, orchards, and vineyards backed by low rolling hills. A traditional three-arched tile-roofed mountain gate (shanmen) stands across the drive. Beyond the gate stretch two- and three-storey brick buildings built in early-20th-century American institutional style, tall trees lining the avenues, and peacocks strolling unhurriedly across the lawns. Ahead stands a wide, windowless hall whose interior walls are lined from floor to ceiling with rows of small gilded Buddha statues.
This is the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (Vạn Phật Thánh Thành), headquarters of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association (formerly the Sino-American Buddhist Association) founded by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua. It is a major Chinese Mahayana Buddhist monastery of the Guiyang Ch'an lineage renowned for its strict observance of monastic precepts. The monastery holds a special place in modern Buddhist history as one of the earliest centers to ordain Western monastics, bridge Mahayana and Theravada traditions, and translate the Buddhist canon into English and Vietnamese on American soil.
IVenerable Master Hsuan Hua and the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association
Venerable Master Hsuan Hua (1918 to 1995, Dharma name An Tzu, also known as Tu Lun) founded the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, which today oversees nearly 30 monasteries and centers across the United States, Canada, Australia, and Asia. Library records and open encyclopedia sources note that he was the ninth patriarch of the Guiyang (Weiyang) Ch'an lineage, having received the Dharma seal from the Venerable Master Hsu Yun in 1947 and 1956. Arriving in the United States in 1962, he taught a landmark 96-day summer Shurangama Sutra study session for American university students in 1968 before ordaining the first five American Buddhist monastics in 1969. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas serves as the mother monastery and headquarters of the association, housing its schools, university, and translation institute.
The Guiyang lineage is one of the Five Houses of classical Chinese Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism, named after the Tang dynasty masters Guishan Lingyou and Yangshan Huiji. At the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Ch'an meditation is practiced hand in hand with strict Vinaya precepts, doctrinal study, esoteric mantras, and Pure Land Buddha-recitation (the Five Great Schools of Ch'an, Teaching, Vinaya, Secret, and Pure Land). Resident monastics uphold austere ascetic practices: eating one vegetarian meal a day before noon, wearing the precept sash (kashaya) at all times outside their quarters, and in many cases keeping the practice of sitting up at night rather than lying down. During communal ceremonies, the entire assembly offers only a single stick of incense on the altar. Master Hsuan Hua established Six Guiding Principles as the community's household standard: no fighting, no greed, no seeking, no selfishness, no pursuit of personal advantage, and no lying.
The consulted sources differ on two points, and the library records both sides. Founding dates: the official history of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas records that the association initiated the purchase of the property in 1974, formally established the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas as an international Buddhist center in 1976 (the same year Dharma Realm Buddhist University was founded), and moved the fourfold assembly from Gold Mountain Monastery in San Francisco to the new campus in autumn 1977. The library lists all three milestones (1974, 1976, and 1977) to show the full sequence. Total land area: the official websites of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and Dharma Realm Buddhist University state that the property spans approximately 700 acres (with about 80 developed acres and roughly 400 acres of fields, orchards, vineyards, and woods), whereas open encyclopedia records state a total area of 488 acres (197 hectares), which matches the sum of the 80 developed acres plus 400 acres of surrounding land.
Hearing the name City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, some visitors assume it is an incorporated municipality or expect to see ten thousand giant outdoor statues. In fact, it is a monastic campus on private land within the unincorporated town of Talmage. The ten thousand Buddhas are small gilded images lining all four walls inside the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas, designed and crafted by Master Hsuan Hua over a ten-year period according to monastery records. Others assume it is a Vietnamese temple because many Vietnamese Buddhists attend services here, whereas in fact it is an international monastery of the Chinese Mahayana tradition in which Vietnamese monastics and laypeople form a long-standing part of the community.
IIFrom a California State Hospital to an International Monastery
The campus originally served as the Mendocino State Hospital (founded in 1889 as the Mendocino State Asylum for the Insane), whose surviving buildings were reconstructed by the State of California in the late 1920s and 1930s on a spacious garden-campus plan before closing in 1972 amid a severe water shortage. According to the monastery's official history, the hospital complex contained over 70 buildings, more than 2,000 rooms, three gymnasiums, a fire station, a swimming pool, and its own water treatment plant, once capable of accommodating over 20,000 people. After acquiring the property, Master Hsuan Hua pointed out a spot where drillers sank a well over a hundred feet deep and struck an abundant vein of sweet water that has supplied the monastery ever since. Rather than demolishing the campus, the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association preserved the historic brick buildings and adapted them into Buddha halls, monastic residences, schools, and lecture halls.
- 1962 to 1970Master Hsuan Hua arrives in America and founds Gold Mountain MonasteryMaster Hsuan Hua arrived in San Francisco in 1962, founded the Sino-American Buddhist Association in 1968, ordained the first five American monastics in 1969, and established Gold Mountain Monastery in 1970.
- 1974Purchase of state hospital campus and visit to SaigonIn July 1974 the association signed the initial purchase for the former Mendocino State Hospital in Talmage near Ukiah (completing the acquisition in 1976). In late 1974 Master Hsuan Hua led a Dharma delegation to Saigon, Vietnam, and across Asia.
- 1976Founding of the City and UniversityThe City of Ten Thousand Buddhas was formally established as the association's international center, alongside Developing Virtue Secondary School and Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU).
- 1977Community moves to the new campusIn autumn 1977 the fourfold assembly relocated from Gold Mountain Monastery in San Francisco to Talmage, together with Instilling Goodness Elementary School (founded in 1975).
- 1979Third Threefold Ordination CeremonyThe monastery hosted a historic ordination platform where senior monks from China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and the United States jointly transmitted the complete precepts across Mahayana and Theravada lineages.
- 1980 to 1982Mountain gate, Main Buddha Hall, and dining hallThe triple-arched mountain gate was erected in 1980. In autumn 1982 the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas was dedicated, the Five Contemplations Dining Hall (seating over 3,000) opened, and the Sangha and Laity Training Programs began.
- 1995Passing of Master Hsuan HuaVenerable Master Hsuan Hua entered nirvana on 7 June 1995 in Los Angeles. His relics (sharira) are enshrined in the Hall of No Words at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.
IIISeventy Historic Buildings and Ten Thousand Buddha Images
The architecture of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is that of an early-20th-century American civic campus transformed into a Buddhist monastic community: multi-storey brick buildings with red tile roofs, wide covered walkways, open lawns, and rows of mature pines and oaks. The official history notes that about 80 acres are developed with more than 25 of the over 70 buildings in active use, while roughly 400 acres remain fields, orchards, vineyards, and woodland (totaling 488 acres per Wikipedia or about 700 acres per the monastery website). Traditional Chinese monastic features such as the triple mountain gate and the gilded interior of the main hall are woven into this Western campus. Flocks of blue peacocks roam freely through the vineyards and across the lawns.
Built in 1980 at the head of the main entrance drive, the three-portal gate with curved tile roofs marks the boundary of the monastic precinct.
Dedicated in 1982 inside a converted windowless indoor basketball gymnasium, the main hall has all four walls lined with 10,000 small Buddha statues crafted by Master Hsuan Hua over ten years, hung with hand-embroidered silk banners.
Standing nearly 20 feet (about 6 meters) tall at the center of the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas, the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva is carved from wood finished with clay and gold leaf.
The Hall of No Words (Wu Yan Tang) enshrines relics of Shakyamuni Buddha, Master Hsu Yun, and Master Hsuan Hua. The Ordination Platform features facing mirrors that reflect images infinitely, evoking Indra's net in the Avatamsaka Sutra.
Opened in autumn 1982, the Five Contemplations Dining Hall seats over 3,000 people for silent monastic meals. Nearby, the Jyun Kang Vegetarian Restaurant serves visitors.
Instilling Goodness Elementary School, Developing Virtue Secondary School (with separate boys' and girls' divisions), and Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) share the campus.
A vital part of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas lies in scripture translation rather than masonry. The campus houses the Buddhist Text Translation Society (founded in 1970), which has translated and published more than a hundred volumes of Mahayana sutras with commentary into English, Vietnamese, Spanish, and other languages. Compared with Hsi Lai Temple of Fo Guang Shan in southern California, where Ming-Qing palace halls were newly built on a hillside, the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas chose to adapt existing hospital buildings and direct its energy into precept practice, education, and sutra translation.
IVSite Landform and Orientation
One point should be stated clearly at the outset: this property was not chosen to build a temple according to geomantic compass formulas. The Dharma Realm Buddhist Association purchased an existing state hospital campus dating back to the late 19th century, and monastery publications make no claims about feng shui. Because it is a Chinese Mahayana monastery closely related in heritage to Vietnamese temples, the library offers a comparative reading through traditional Vietnamese geomancy. This is the library's own spatial commentary rather than anything planned by the founders.
On a topographic map, the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas sits along the eastern edge of the Ukiah Valley, backed by the foothills of the Mayacamas Range to the east (with Mill Creek Reservoir nestled in the southeastern hills), while the Russian River flows southward along the valley floor to the west between Talmage and the town of Ukiah. In traditional Vietnamese siting, this forms a sitting east, facing west, backed-by-hills and facing-water layout: the eastern hills provide a solid backing pillow (hậu chẩm), while the flat valley floor and river form an expansive bright hall (minh đường) in front.
In five-phase theory, most of the property consists of meadows, orchards, vineyards, and pine-and-oak woods according to the official history, corresponding to Wood and Earth, nourished by the deep artesian well corresponding to Water. Water generates Wood, and Wood and Earth sustain growth, fitting a campus dedicated to cultivating people from primary school children to monastics. Classical manuals view a sanctuary where living trees outnumber buildings and deep sweet water flows as a site rich in vital energy (sinh khí).
There is also a human layer that traditional readers notice immediately: for more than eighty years the grounds served as a state psychiatric hospital. Traditional Vietnamese thought views turning a place long associated with physical and mental suffering into a sanctuary of pure precepts and sutra chanting as a transformation of the land's karma, calming a site of past distress through disciplined practice. The library notes this as a reflective reading rather than a historical motive for the purchase.
Finally, in spatial concentration, the former hospital was built to hold up to twenty thousand people, whereas the monastery concentrates daily life within roughly 80 central acres and leaves hundreds of surrounding acres as open fields and forest. In traditional siting, clustering human activity within a compact core keeps energy from dispersing across a vast property, while the surrounding woods act as a quiet buffer shielding the meditation halls.
VLunar Calendar Observances and the Vietnamese Buddhist Connection
Liturgical observances at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas follow the lunar calendar, just like Chinese and Vietnamese Mahayana temples. The monastery's 2026 calendar places each major celebration on the Sunday nearest the lunar date so laypeople travelling from afar can attend, followed by week-long or month-long recitation sessions. Alongside Bodhisattva feast days, the annual schedule features the Ten Thousand Buddhas Jeweled Repentance spanning over three weeks in spring (from 10 May to 2 June in 2026) and the three-week Winter Ch'an Meditation Session from late December into January.
| Lunar / historical date | Calendar basis | Celebration and Dharma session | 2026 scheduled dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19th day of the 2nd month | Lunar calendar | Guanyin Bodhisattva's Birthday and Guanyin Recitation Week | Celebration 5 April, session 5 to 11 April |
| 8th day of the 4th month | Lunar calendar | Buddha's Birthday (Bathing the Buddha) and Ten Thousand Buddhas Repentance | Celebration 24 May, repentance 10 May to 2 June |
| 7 June 1995 | Solar / Lunar calendar | Venerable Master Hsuan Hua Memorial Day | 21 June |
| 19th day of the 6th month | Lunar calendar | Guanyin Bodhisattva's Enlightenment and Guanyin Session | Celebration 26 July, session 26 July to 1 August |
| 15th day of the 7th month | Lunar calendar | Ullambana (Vu Lan) Filial Piety Day | 23 August |
| 30th day of the 7th month | Lunar calendar | Earth Store (Ksitigarbha) Bodhisattva's Birthday and Session | Celebration 6 September, session 6 to 12 September |
| 19th day of the 9th month | Lunar calendar | Guanyin Bodhisattva's Leaving Home Day and Guanyin Session | Celebration 25 October, session 25 to 31 October |
| 17th day of the 11th month | Lunar calendar | Amitabha Buddha's Birthday, Amitabha Session, and Winter Ch'an | Celebration 20 December, session 20 to 26 December |
Regarding the connection with Vietnamese Buddhism: in late 1974 Master Hsuan Hua led a Dharma delegation to Saigon, and after 1975 he actively sponsored and welcomed Vietnamese monastics and refugees resettling in the United States. At the historic 1979 Threefold Ordination Ceremony at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, senior Vietnamese monks sat alongside Chinese, Sri Lankan, and American masters on the ordination platform. According to the Vietnamese-language portal vanphatthanh.org, Vietnamese monks and nuns reside at the monastery, weekend ceremonies and Avatamsaka Sutra lectures include live Vietnamese interpretation, and the Vietnamese Translation Committee of the Buddhist Text Translation Society has translated and published dozens of sutras and commentaries into Vietnamese for practitioners across Northern California and overseas.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- 4951 Bodhi Way, Ukiah, CA 95482 (Talmage, hạt Mendocino)
- Getting there
- The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is located at 4951 Bodhi Way in Talmage, Mendocino County, just east of Ukiah in northern California. From San Francisco, drive north on US Route 101 for about 110 miles (two to two and a half hours) to Ukiah, then turn east on Talmage Road across the Russian River.
- Coordinates
- 39.1328, -123.1628
The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is a strict Vinaya monastery, and visitors are asked to follow monastic rules on campus. Do not bring meat, fish, eggs, the five pungent plants (garlic, onions, leeks, shallots, chives), alcohol, tobacco, or recreational drugs onto the grounds. Please dress modestly, speak quietly, and do not bring pets. Monastic residences are private practice quarters and are off-limits unless invited. Inside the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas, visitors bow in respect without lighting personal incense sticks, as the monastery offers a single stick of incense on behalf of the entire assembly.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
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Góp ảnh, thông tin hoặc video cho Vạn Phật Thánh Thành (City of Ten Thousand Buddhas)Everyone is welcome to enrich this page: a photo you took, a detail the page misses, a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
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?Quick Questions
where is the city of ten thousand buddhas and how large is it
It is located at 4951 Bodhi Way in Talmage, just east of Ukiah in Mendocino County, northern California, about 110 miles north of San Francisco via US Route 101. The official websites of the monastery and Dharma Realm Buddhist University state that the property covers approximately 700 acres, while Wikipedia records 488 acres (comprising about 80 developed acres with over 70 buildings of the former Mendocino State Hospital and roughly 400 acres of fields, orchards, and woods).
who founded the city of ten thousand buddhas and when
It was founded by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua (1918 to 1995), ninth patriarch of the Guiyang Ch'an lineage and founder of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. The association purchased the former state hospital property in 1974, formally established the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and Dharma Realm Buddhist University in 1976, and moved the monastic community from Gold Mountain Monastery in San Francisco to the campus in autumn 1977.
are there really ten thousand buddha statues at the monastery
Yes. Inside the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas (converted from a former indoor basketball gymnasium and dedicated in 1982), 10,000 small gilded Buddha images line all four walls from floor to ceiling, designed and crafted by Master Hsuan Hua over ten years. At the center of the hall stands a 20-foot statue of the Thousand-Handed, Thousand-Eyed Guanyin Bodhisattva.
what are the six guiding principles and monastic rules at the city of ten thousand buddhas
The Six Guiding Principles established by Master Hsuan Hua are: no fighting, no greed, no seeking, no selfishness, no pursuit of personal advantage, and no lying. Resident monastics observe strict ascetic precepts: eating one vegetarian meal a day before noon, wearing their precept sash outside their rooms at all times, often practicing sitting up at night rather than lying down, and offering a single communal stick of incense for the entire assembly.
does the city of ten thousand buddhas have vietnamese buddhist activities
Yes. Master Hsuan Hua visited Saigon in late 1974, and senior Vietnamese monks served as ordination masters at the monastery's 1979 Threefold Ordination Ceremony. Today Vietnamese monastics reside at the monastery, weekend services and Avatamsaka Sutra lectures offer Vietnamese interpretation (documented at vanphatthanh.org), and the Vietnamese Translation Committee has published dozens of translated Buddhist sutras in Vietnamese.