Driving along Provincial Highway 29 beside the western bank of the Gaoping River in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, visitors can spot two colossal golden Buddha figures rising above the deep green hills from several kilometers away. On the southern ridge within the original Fo Guang Shan Monastery stands the 36-meter Great Amitabha Buddha surrounded by 480 smaller standing Buddhas, his left hand lowered in a welcoming gesture to guide sentient beings toward the Pure Land. Immediately to the north unfolds the monumental axis of the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum: two symmetrical rows of seven-story northern-style Chinese pagodas flank the Great Path to Buddhahood, leading toward the Indian stupa-domed Main Hall and the seated bronze Fo Guang Big Buddha, which reaches 108 meters in total height including its base.
Begun on 16 May 1967 on a rugged, ravine-cut hillside of thorny bamboo known as Mazhuyuan by Venerable Master Hsing Yun (1927 to 2023), Fo Guang Shan has grown over more than half a century into one of the Four Great Mountains of contemporary Taiwanese Buddhism (alongside Dharma Drum Mountain in the north, Chung Tai Chan Monastery in central Taiwan, and Tzu Chi in the east). Serving as the mother monastery for more than three hundred branch temples worldwide, it embodies the practice of Humanistic Buddhism by integrating monastic cultivation, higher education, museum curation, publishing and social charity into everyday life.
IVenerable Master Hsing Yun, the Linji Chan lineage and Humanistic Buddhism
The founder and spiritual architect of Fo Guang Shan was Venerable Master Hsing Yun (星雲大師, born Lee Kuo-shen in 1927 in Jiangdu County, Jiangsu Province, and passed away on 5 February 2023 in Kaohsiung). Ordained as a novice monk at the age of twelve at Qixia Mountain Monastery in Nanjing under Venerable Master Zhikai, he became a 48th-generation lineage holder of the Linji school (Rinzai) of Chinese Chan Buddhism. After arriving in Taiwan in 1949 and taking up residence at Leiyin Temple in Yilan in 1953, he organized youth Buddhist choirs, periodicals and schools before moving south to Kaohsiung to establish the Kaohsiung Buddhist Cultural Service Center and the Shoushan Buddhist College.
As the number of student monks, nuns and lay followers rapidly outgrew the urban center, Master Hsing Yun sold the Kaohsiung cultural building in 1967 to purchase more than twenty jia (approximately 20 hectares) of wild bamboo hills at Mazhuyuan in Dashu Township (now Dashu District). At the time, the terrain was a tangle of thorny bamboo groves and steep gullies that visitors dismissed as inhospitable wasteland, yet Master Hsing Yun remarked that for monastic practitioners, a quiet wilderness far from city noise was the ideal ground on which to build a great forest monastery and academy.
The doctrinal heart of Fo Guang Shan is Humanistic Buddhism (人間佛教, Renjian Fojiao) within the tradition of Mahayana Buddhism. Building upon the early twentieth-century reformist vision of Master Taixu (1890 to 1947) and Master Cihang, Master Hsing Yun defined Humanistic Buddhism as the Dharma taught by Shakyamuni Buddha in the human world and for human beings, aiming to purify the human mind and construct a Pure Land here on earth rather than focusing solely on afterlife rebirth or solitary retreat in remote mountains.
To translate profound Mahayana philosophy into daily practice for both monastics and householders, Fo Guang Shan upholds four guiding objectives: to propagate the Dharma through culture, to foster talent through education, to benefit society through charity, and to purify human minds through spiritual cultivation. In daily conduct, this ethos is distilled into the Four Givings (giving others confidence, giving others joy, giving others hope, and giving others convenience) and the Three Acts of Goodness movement purifying body, speech and mind (do good deeds, speak good words, and keep good thoughts), complemented by the Five Harmonies (inner peace of mind, harmony in the family, mutual respect among people, harmony in society, and peace in the world).
A defining institutional feature of Fo Guang Shan is its model of monastics and laypeople functioning like the two wings of a bird. Alongside a monastic sangha of more than 1,300 bhikshus and bhikshunis serving at the Kaohsiung headquarters and over 300 branch temples worldwide (such as Hsi Lai Temple in California, Nan Tien Temple in Australia, and Nan Hua Temple in South Africa), Master Hsing Yun founded the Buddha's Light International Association (BLIA, initially established in Taipei on 3 February 1991 and inaugurated as a world headquarters in Los Angeles on 16 May 1992) for millions of lay devotees. In 2003, BLIA was granted consultative status as a non-governmental organization (NGO) by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
In higher education, Fo Guang Shan has established five universities: Fo Guang University (Yilan, Taiwan), Nanhua University (Chiayi, Taiwan), University of the West (Rosemead, California, USA), Nan Tien Institute (Wollongong, Australia), and Guang Ming College (Manila, Philippines), in addition to the Fo Guang Shan Tsunglin University seminary, which has trained thousands of monastic scholars from across the globe.
Unlike many traditional monasteries where an abbot serves for life, Fo Guang Shan early on instituted a term-limited, democratically elected system for the Head Abbot (Director-General of the Order) chosen by the Religious Affairs Committee. In 1985, after serving three terms as founding abbot, Master Hsing Yun voluntarily stepped down while still in vigorous health to pass leadership to his foremost disciple Venerable Hsin Ping (4th term), followed by Venerable Hsin Ting (5th and 6th terms), Venerable Hsin Pei (7th and 8th terms), and Venerable Hsin Bao (9th, 10th and 11th terms). Because of this clear institutional succession, when Master Hsing Yun passed away peacefully in February 2023 at the age of 97, the global monastic order and its educational institutions continued their work seamlessly.
IIFrom the bamboo ravines of Mazhuyuan to the enshrining of the Buddha's tooth relic
The architectural development of Fo Guang Shan unfolded across two major phases corresponding to its two adjacent precincts: the first phase from 1967 through the early 1980s leveled hills and ravines to build Fo Guang Shan Monastery on the southern slopes, while the second phase from 1998 to 2011 created the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum to the north to enshrine the tooth relic of Shakyamuni Buddha.
- 16 May 1967Groundbreaking at Mazhuyuan in DashuMaster Hsing Yun sold the Kaohsiung Buddhist Cultural Service Center, purchased over 20 jia of hillside land at Mazhuyuan in Dashu District, and held the groundbreaking ceremony for Fo Guang Shan, starting with the Eastern Buddhist College and the Great Compassion Shrine.
- 1971Completion of the Great Compassion Shrine and Non-Duality GateThe Great Compassion Shrine housing the Thousand-Armed Guanyin Bodhisattva was inaugurated alongside the Non-Duality Gate (Bu'er Men), establishing the primary pilgrimage path up the mountain.
- November 1975Consecration of the 36-meter Amitabha Buddha and Main Shrine groundbreakingA grand consecration ceremony was held for the 120-foot (36-meter) standing Amitabha Buddha at the Great Buddha Land on the eastern hill, coinciding with the foundation-stone ceremony for the Main Shrine (Daxiong Baodian).
- 1981 - 1982Completion of the pillarless Main ShrineThe monumental Main Shrine was completed with a clear-span interior free of supporting columns, displaying a plaque inscribed by master painter Chang Dai-chien and completing the five-hill monastic layout.
- 1997 - 2000Three-year mountain closure for quiet monastic cultivationMarking the 30th anniversary of the monastery's founding in 1997, Master Hsing Yun announced the closing of the mountain gate to mass tourism to restore a tranquil environment for monastic study, and the gates reopened in 2000 with dedicated zones for practice and visitors.
- Feb - Apr 1998Welcoming the Buddha's tooth relic from India to TaiwanDuring the International Triple Platform Ordination at Bodh Gaya, India, Tibetan lama Kunga Dorje Rinpoche presented the tooth relic of Shakyamuni Buddha, which he had safeguarded for nearly three decades, to Master Hsing Yun to be enshrined in Taiwan.
- 2003 - 25 Dec 2011Nine-year construction and inauguration of the Buddha MuseumFollowing the 2003 foundation ceremony and over one hundred design revisions, the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum and the 108-meter bronze Fo Guang Big Buddha were officially inaugurated on 25 December 2011.
- 2014 and 5 Feb 2023ICOM membership and parinirvana of Venerable Master Hsing YunIn 2014, the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum was admitted as a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). On 5 February 2023 (the Lantern Festival), Master Hsing Yun passed away at age 97, leaving behind a worldwide legacy of Humanistic Buddhism.
The creation of the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum was directly inspired by the preservation of the Buddha's tooth relic (佛牙舍利) through the upheavals of the twentieth century. According to Fo Guang Shan archives, the relic was formerly enshrined in a stupa at Nailang (Nenang) Monastery in Tibet. When the monastery suffered damage in the late 1950s, the Tibetan lama Kunga Dorje Rinpoche (貢噶多傑仁波切) carried the relic across the Himalayas to northern India and safeguarded it in secret for nearly thirty years. In early 1998, then in his seventies and recognizing Fo Guang Shan's decades of work promoting Chinese-Tibetan Buddhist exchange and global Dharma education, Kunga Dorje Rinpoche and twelve fellow Rinpoches signed a certificate at Bodh Gaya donating the tooth relic to Master Hsing Yun so that a permanent reliquary stupa could be erected in Taiwan.
During the planning of the museum, architects drafted more than one hundred blueprints over several years without fully capturing the desired synthesis of ancient and modern forms. Finally, Master Hsing Yun arranged a stack of facial tissue boxes as the central Main Hall, lined up two rows of mineral water bottles in front as Eight Pagodas, and placed a tall vase behind as the Great Buddha. That impromptu tabletop arrangement became the master plan of the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum seen today.
IIIThe Main Shrine, Great Amitabha Buddha and the Eight-Pagoda axis of the Buddha Museum
The Fo Guang Shan complex in Dashu District encompasses two interconnected architectural realms overlooking the Gaoping River. Regarding total land area, official sources record two complementary figures depending on scope: general Fo Guang Shan overviews and the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau cite a total planned area of 100 hectares for the Buddha Museum precinct, whereas the dedicated Chinese Wikipedia monograph on the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum specifies 50 hectares for the core museum grounds alongside more than 50 hectares for the adjacent Fo Guang Shan Monastery and Sutra Repository.
In the southern Fo Guang Shan Monastery precinct (begun in 1967), halls and academies step upward along five low ridges (East, West, South, North and Central Hills). In the northern Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum precinct (completed in 2011), structures align along a strict one-kilometer west-to-east central axis following Master Hsing Yun's spatial formula: eight pagodas in front, the Great Buddha behind, Vulture Peak to the south, and Jetavana Grove to the north, blending northern Chinese timber-style pavilions with an Indian hemispherical stupa dome.
The spiritual heart of Fo Guang Shan Monastery, rising 30 meters high over a floor area of more than 3,570 square meters with a column-free interior span. Its name plaque was written by master painter Chang Dai-chien. Inside sit three 8-meter statues of the Three Treasure Buddhas (Shakyamuni in the center, Amitabha on the right, and Bhaisajyaguru on the left), surrounded by 14,800 illuminated Buddha niches recessed into the four walls.
Standing atop the eastern hill of the monastery and consecrated in November 1975. The golden statue of Amitabha Buddha rises 120 feet (36 meters) high, his right hand raised in the fearlessness mudra and his left hand lowered to welcome sentient beings, encircled by 480 two-meter standing Buddha statues.
A three-story reception building with one basement level marking the eastern entrance to the Buddha Museum. Flanking the entrance plaza stand two five-meter statue groups: on the right a six-tusked White Elephant symbolizing the Buddha's conception, and on the left a Golden Lion representing the fearless roar of Prajna wisdom.
A stone-paved ceremonial avenue 240 meters long and 113 meters wide leading from the Front Hall to Bodhi Wisdom Concourse. Lining the avenue are eight identical seven-story square Chinese pavilions, each 37 meters tall faced in yellow sandstone, named One Teaching, Two Assemblies, Three Goodness, Four Givings, Five Harmonies, Six Perfections, Seven Admonitions, and Eightfold Path.
A courtyard measuring 100 by 100 meters in front of the Main Hall, approached via the 37 steps of the Photo Terrace (symbolizing the 37 Factors of Enlightenment). Flanking the concourse are stone statues carved by sculptor Wu Jung-tzu depicting the Eighteen Arhats (uniquely including three female Arhats: Mahaprajapati, Bhadra Kapilani and Utpalavarna) and the Eight Patriarchs of Chinese Mahayana schools.
Rising nearly 50 meters in the shape of an Indian hemispherical stupa with Four Noble Truth Stupas at its corners and one million hand-copied Heart Sutras inside its finial. The ground floor houses the Avalokiteshvara Shrine (with a crystal Thousand-Armed Guanyin by Loretta Yang), the Golden Buddha Shrine (housing a golden Buddha gifted by the Thai Supreme Patriarch in 2004), and the Jade Buddha Shrine where the Buddha's tooth relic is enshrined above a Burmese white jade reclining Buddha. Beneath the complex lie 48 Underground Palaces designed as time capsules to be opened once every century.
Enthroned at the western apex behind the Main Hall and completed in 2011. Depicting Shakyamuni Buddha seated in lotus posture with his right hand raised in the teaching mudra, the statue was cast from 1,872 metric tons of bronze, with the bronze figure itself measures 50 meters high atop a 58-meter base Building, reaching a total height of 108 meters (equivalent to a 36-story building).
Inside the Jade Buddha Shrine of the Main Hall, directly before the Burmese white jade statue of the reclining Buddha flanked by polychrome jade reliefs of the Eastern Lapis Lazuli World and the Western Ultimate Bliss Pure Land, hangs a moving couplet composed by Master Hsing Yun: When the Buddha was in the world I was sunk in samsara, after the Buddha entered parinirvana I was born, I repent that this body bears heavy karmic obstacles, only today do I behold the Tathagata's true body. Readers wishing to compare major sanctuaries housing the Buddha's tooth relic may also consult our entry on the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Sri Dalada Maligawa) in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
Both early Buddhist scriptures and Master Hsing Yun's Humanistic Buddhism teach that wherever the Dharma is practiced, that place is auspicious ground, regarding a pure mind as the highest feng shui rather than relying on geomantic divination. Even so, the siting of the monastery halls across the five hills of Dashu District and the alignment of the Buddha Museum facing the Gaoping River correspond remarkably well with the classical East Asian principles of sitting against the mountain and facing water to gather qi. The section below offers the library's reading of this landscape through traditional landform feng shui.
In terms of macro-topography and the dragon vein (long mạch), the entire Fo Guang Shan sanctuary (with the Monastery centered at 22.74744° N, 120.44614° E and the Buddha Museum at 22.75708° N, 120.44135° E) backs against the rolling foothills of the Neimen upland in Dashu District while looking out across the broad alluvial valley of the Gaoping River (formerly the Lower Tamsui Creek), Taiwan's largest river by drainage basin, which flows from north to south directly in front of the mountain gate. Farther east across the Gaoping River rises the majestic wall of Mount Dawu (Dawushan, with North Dawu Peak reaching 3,092 meters) in the Central Mountain Range, acting as a grand distant front screen (tiền án) along the eastern horizon. With protective hills forming the rear backing (hậu chẩm) to the west, a great river curving across the bright hall (minh đường) in front, and lofty mountains beyond the river, the site commands a classic mountain-embracing and water-girdling macro-formation.
As for the facing and the node (huyệt), the two precincts complement each other along two axes. The original Fo Guang Shan Monastery and its Main Shrine sit in the northeast and face southwest atop the central ridge, embraced on left and right by five small hills (the Five Hills) linked by bridges over natural ravines in a formation likened to five dragons paying court to the sage. Meanwhile, both the 36-meter Great Amitabha Buddha and the kilometer-long axis of the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum are aligned to sit in the west and face east (approximately 105 degrees east-southeast), directly greeting the morning sun as it rises over Mount Dawu and reflects off the Gaoping River. In landform reading, the twin rows of the Eight Pagodas flanking the Great Path to Buddhahood serve as symmetrical Azure Dragon on the left and White Tiger on the right honor guards, channeling vital energy from the river valley up the 37 steps of the Photo Terrace into the 100-by-100-meter Bodhi Wisdom Concourse, where the inner bright hall gathers qi before the stupa-domed Main Hall and the 108-meter bronze Fo Guang Big Buddha anchoring the western rear backing.
VSpring Peace Lantern Festival, Water and Land Dharma Service, and Laba porridge
Putting into practice the ideal of bringing the Dharma into community life through seasonal celebrations, Fo Guang Shan and the Buddha Museum host international Dharma assemblies and cultural festivals throughout the year, welcoming nearly ten million pilgrims and visitors annually.
| Date (Calendar used) | Festival or Dharma assembly | Key rites and cultural activities |
|---|---|---|
| 1st to 15th day of the 1st month (Lunar calendar) | Spring Festival of Peace Lanterns | Initiated in 1980: tens of thousands of peace lanterns illuminate the hills, accompanied by aerial drone light shows, fireworks and Three Acts of Goodness float parades along the Great Path to Buddhahood. |
| 8th day of the 4th month (Lunar) and 2nd Sunday of May (Gregorian) | Buddha's Birthday (Buddha Jewel Day) and Bathing the Buddha | Combined celebration of Prince Siddhartha's birth and Mother's Day, featuring hundreds of fragrant herbal water basins on Bodhi Wisdom Concourse and before the Main Shrine. |
| 16 May (Gregorian calendar) | Fo Guang Shan Founding Day and International BLIA Day | Commemorating the 1967 groundbreaking by Master Hsing Yun and the 1992 founding of BLIA World Headquarters, marked by gratitude chanting services and forums on Humanistic Buddhism. |
| 7th month (Lunar calendar) | Ullambana Filial Piety Assembly and Yogacara Flaming Mouth Rite (Sangha Jewel Day) | Sangha Day offerings to monastic assemblies on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month alongside Yogacara Flaming Mouth merit-transfer rituals for ancestors. |
| 11th month (Lunar calendar) | Universal Water and Land Dharma Service | The grandest annual liberation and peace-blessing assembly at the mother monastery, featuring seven consecutive days and nights of sutra chanting across an Inner Altar and seven Outer Altars. |
| 25 December (Gregorian) and 8th day of the 12th month (Lunar) | World Gods and Religious Leaders Assembly and Dharma Jewel Day (Laba) | On 25 December hundreds of temple palanquins of Mazu, Guandi, Baosheng Dadi and interfaith representatives gather on Bodhi Wisdom Concourse, while on the 8th day of the 12th lunar month millions of bowls of Laba eight-treasure porridge are cooked and shared. |
Among these annual events, the World Gods and Religious Leaders Association Assembly held around 25 December (the anniversary of the Buddha Museum's inauguration) is a remarkable spectacle of interreligious harmony: hundreds of Taoist and folk temples dedicated to Mazu, Guandi and Baosheng Dadi, alongside Catholic, Protestant, Islamic and Confucian delegations, process with their palanquins along the Great Path to Buddhahood to greet the Buddha, embodying Master Hsing Yun's lifelong commitment to interfaith respect. Fo Guang Shan also maintains close ties with Vietnamese Buddhism, and many Vietnamese monastics, students and overseas Vietnamese living in Kaohsiung and southern Taiwan regularly visit the mountain for Ullambana and the Spring Lantern Festival.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- No. 1, Tongling Road, Tongling Village, Dashu District, Kaohsiung City 84049, Taiwan (高雄市大樹區統嶺里統嶺路1號)
- Getting there
- Located at No. 1, Tongling Road, Dashu District, Kaohsiung City. From HSR Zuoying Station (High Speed Rail) or Kaohsiung Metro Zuoying Station (R16), take the E02 Harvard Express Bus or the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Dashu Route directly to the Front Hall of the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum and the Non-Duality Gate of Fo Guang Shan Monastery in 35 to 45 minutes.
- Coordinates
- 22.74744, 120.44614
When visiting Fo Guang Shan Monastery and the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum, please dress modestly (avoiding shorts above the knee or sleeveless tops inside the shrines) and wear comfortable walking shoes for the long avenues and hillside steps. Admission to both the monastery and the museum complex is completely free of charge, and only vegetarian cuisine is served at the Water Drop Teahouses and dining halls, so visitors are asked not to bring meat, alcohol or tobacco onto the grounds.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
Contribute photos, information or video for Fo Guang Shan
Góp ảnh, thông tin hoặc video cho Phật Quang Sơn và Phật Đà Kỷ Niệm Quán, Cao HùngEveryone is welcome to enrich this page: a photo you took, a detail the page misses, a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
Thầy Ưng Khiêm mời cộng đồng cùng làm giàu trang này. Ảnh chụp tận nơi, một chi tiết lịch sử chưa được nhắc, một đoạn video ngắn: mọi đóng góp đều được đọc và trả lời.
No community contribution yet. You could be the first. Chưa có đóng góp nào từ cộng đồng. Bạn có thể là người đầu tiên.
?Quick Questions
Are Fo Guang Shan Monastery and the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum the same place?
They are two adjacent precincts standing side by side on the same hillside in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, under the Fo Guang Shan monastic order. Fo Guang Shan Monastery on the south side was founded on 16 May 1967 and centers on the Main Shrine and the 36-meter standing Amitabha Buddha, while the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum on the north side was inaugurated on 25 December 2011 with the Eight Pagodas, Main Hall and 108-meter seated bronze Fo Guang Big Buddha.
Where did the Buddha's tooth relic enshrined in the Buddha Museum come from?
The tooth relic was historically preserved in a stupa at Nailang Monastery in Tibet before being carried across the Himalayas to northern India in the late 1950s by the Tibetan lama Kunga Dorje Rinpoche, who safeguarded it for nearly thirty years. In February 1998 at Bodh Gaya, India, Kunga Dorje Rinpoche and twelve fellow Rinpoches signed a certificate donating the relic to Master Hsing Yun to be enshrined in Taiwan.
How tall and heavy is the bronze Fo Guang Big Buddha statue?
Enthroned at the western apex behind the Main Hall, the Fo Guang Big Buddha was cast from 1,872 metric tons of bronze depicting Shakyamuni Buddha seated in lotus posture with his right hand in the teaching mudra. The bronze statue itself rises 50 meters high atop a 58-meter base structure, reaching a total height of 108 meters (equivalent to a 36-story building).
What do the Three Acts of Goodness and Four Givings mean at Fo Guang Shan?
They are the core daily practices of Humanistic Buddhism taught by Venerable Master Hsing Yun. The Three Acts of Goodness purify body, speech and mind: do good deeds, speak good words, and keep good thoughts. The Four Givings express the bodhisattva spirit in daily life: giving others confidence, giving others joy, giving others hope, and giving others convenience.
Can visitors venerate the tooth relic and copy sutras inside the museum?
Visitors may enter the Jade Buddha Shrine on the first floor of the Main Hall during daily opening hours to bow before the reliquary enshrining the Buddha's tooth relic above the Burmese white jade reclining Buddha. Both inside the Jade Buddha Shrine and on the third floor of the Twin Pavilions, guests may also copy the Heart Sutra by hand and experience Chan tea.