Fo Guang Shan (Buddha's Light Mountain)
Main Deities
About
From a stretch of barren hillside to more than three hundred branch temples across the globe, Fo Guang Shan (Buddha's Light Mountain) is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan, set in Dashu District, Kaohsiung. One of Taiwan's four great Buddhist orders, it was founded single-handedly in 1967 by Venerable Master Hsing Yun and enshrines Shakyamuni Buddha and Amitabha Buddha. Its best-known landmark is the Buddha Memorial Center: eight pagodas line the Path to Buddhahood, drawing the eye toward the colossal Buddha statue at its end. Fo Guang Shan is famed for promoting 'Humanistic Buddhism' — the conviction that the Dharma belongs not on some remote mountaintop but woven into everyday life.
History
In 1949 Master Hsing Yun came to Taiwan with the Nationalist government; in 1967 he bought a tract of barren hillside in Dashu, Kaohsiung, and began to build — and Fo Guang Shan was born. No one could have guessed that this scrubby hill would grow, over the next fifty-odd years, into an internationally renowned center of Buddhism. In 2011 the Buddha Memorial Center was completed, and it soon became the most important religious tourism destination in southern Taiwan, drawing several million visitors a year.
Fo Guang Shan (Buddha's Light Mountain)
Dashu District, Kaohsiung City
Visitor Info
Address
No. 153, Xingtian Rd., Dashu Dist., Kaohsiung City
Region
Dashu District, Kaohsiung City