An abbreviated form of sōgya ranma 僧伽欄摩 (Sk: samgha arama). Lit. A garden for monks. Also rendered as sōen 僧園, shūen 衆園, or shōja 精舎. Park-like places where Buddhist monks gathered with their teachers. The word, garan, which later came to mean temple, tera 寺, when it consisted of a number of buildings, referred to as shichidō 七堂 or *shichidō garan 七堂伽藍, first appears in a record from the reign of Emperor Kinmei 欽明 (539-71), the time during which Buddhism was officially introduced to Japan from the Paekche kingdom in Korea (Jp: *Kudara 百済). Due to the conflict between supporters of the indigenous Shinto beliefs and the supporters of the newly introduced Buddhism, no monastery with a discernible plan, or the ruin of one, survives. Certainly, the Japanese were advised as to the arrangement of monastic buildings from visiting emissaries from Paekche. During the reign of Japanese Emperor Bidatsu 敏達 (572-85), the Paekche king sent a temple architect, six Buddhists and an image maker to Japan in AD 577 according to the Nihon shoki 日本書紀. The building of temples began soon after. The temple layout at Shitennōji 四天王寺 in Osaka reflects the plan of Chongyimsa temple in Puyo, the capital of the Paekche kingdom from 538-663.