Zhaiming Temple

Date CapturedJanuary 4th, 2020 at 05:14 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR IIApertureƒ / 8Shutter Speed1/250 secFocal Length22.0 mmISO100Exposure Value14.0 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

The oldest Buddhist temple in Daxi, founded in 1850 by Li Ajia (李阿甲) as a Longhua (龍華) sect zhaitang of the Zhaijiao (齋教) folk religion under the name Fufen Temple (福份宮). It was relocated to the current site in 1873 under the second abbot Huang Pusei (黃普瑟), who renamed it Zhaiming Hall (齋明堂), and the structure was rebuilt in the style of a sanheyuan by Ye Jinwan (葉金萬) in 1912. The fifth abbot Jiang Chengkun (江澄坤) sought Japanese colonial era protection by affiliating with the Sōtō Zen school (曹洞宗) in 1926, and under the Japanese “religious rationalisation” (宗教整理) policy of 1937 the hall acquired its current name. In 1999 the sixth abbot Jiang Zhangren (江張仁) formally transferred the institution to Dharma Drum Mountain (法鼓山), with Master Sheng Yen (聖嚴法師) becoming its seventh abbot. Behind the old temple is a more modern structure typical of this group’s style, which won the grand prize at the 2012 Taiwan Architecture Awards.