Shichidō garan

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

Shichidō garan

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