Hemei Shande Temple

Originally established in 1913 as Shande Hall (善德堂), a Longhua (龍華) sect zhaitang (齋堂), or fasting hall, of the Zhaijiao (齋教) folk religion in Hemei, intended as a space for laywomen to practice strict vegetarianism and celibacy. It was absorbed into the Sōtō Zen school (曹洞宗) in 1929 under the Japanese colonial government’s temple consolidation policy and has since drifted fully into mainstream Buddhism, operating as an ordinary monastic establishment under the enlarged name of Shande Temple following successive post-war renovations.