Tainan Mituo Temple

Established during the reign of Zheng Jing (鄭經), likely around 1677, as one of the earliest Buddhist temples in Taiwan. In 1692 the incoming Qing magistrate Wang Zhaosheng (王兆陞) founded Mituoshi Academy (彌陀室書院), a rudimentary study hall, at this temple. It was one of the earliest places of scholarship on record in Taiwan but its later history is unclear and it may have simply been absorbed into the temple over subsequent reconstructions. The temple grew into a major monastery and it is now regarded as one of the seven temples and eight shrines (七寺八廟) of historic Tainan by the late 1800s. It was heavily damaged during World War 2 and had to be completely rebuilt from 1971 to 1980, leaving nothing of the previous structure intact.