Fo Guang Shan Monastery
Located in Dashu, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Fo Guang Shan is made up of five small mountains. The first is the East Mountain, where the Ksitigarbha Shrine, the Great Buddha Land, the Great Wisdom Shrine, the Men's Buddhist College are located. The second mountain is where the devotees make pilgrimages to pay
respect to the Buddha. The life-releasing pond, the Non-Duality Gate, the Pure Land Cave, the Pilgrim’s Lodge, and the Main Shrine are located here. The third mountain is where the Jeweled Bridge, the Great Compassion Shrine, and the Women's Buddhist College are located. The fourth mountain is where the
Fu-hui Home for Spiritual Cultivation, and the educational areas for devotees are located. The fifth mountain is where the Emei Golden Summit, the Samantabhadra Shrine, the Fo Guang Senior Citizen's Home, and the Da Ci Children's Home are located. The terrain of the monastery has a layout shaped like a lotus flower and has the conditions of being a Buddha's Pure Land. The monastery is designed after the Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism in China as well as a multi-cultural synthesis of Buddhist architecture. The idea is to turn the abstract thought of Buddhism into something concrete through skillful representation. Fo Guang Shan is a monastery centralized around traditional Buddhist culture, education, Dharma propagation, charity, pilgrimage, tourism, and emphasizes equality between the monastics and the laity.
The Buddha Memorial Center
Located in Dashu, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the Buddha Memorial Center
faces to the east. There are eight pagodas in front of the Fo Guang
Big Buddha. The Vulture Peak is to the south, and Jetavana Grove is
to the north. The main buildings are located along central axis from east to west: the Front Hall, the Eight Pagodas, the Grand Photo Terrace, the Bodhi Wisdom Concourse, the Main Hall, and the Fo Guang Big Buddha. The Main Hall has one floor under ground and five floors above ground. The Eight Pagodas, which have a pavilion architecture style represent the Noble Eightfold Path. The Pagodas are seven stories tall, and render a square cross-section. There are
also the Four Noble Truths Pagodas which resemble the Maha Bodhi
Pagoda in Bodhgaya, India. Underneath the Main Hall are forty-eight
underground palaces filed with collections of sacred Buddhist
objects. The two corridors, located on the sides of the Buddha
Memorial Center, have twenty-two reliefs depicting Buddha's stories
and twenty-two carvings of Venerable Master Hsing Yun's Dharma
verses on praises of the Buddha. Outside of the corridors and on the
Bodhi Wisdom Concourse, there are stone carvings of the Eighteen
Arhats. The Buddha Memorial Center is a blending of the ancient and
the modern, the Chinese and the foreign, as well as traditional and
contemporary architecture. It is a center for culture and education as
well as a center for developing wisdom and spiritual cultivation.
Fo Guang University
Located in Yilan, Chiaohsi, Taiwan, the Fo Guang University campus
overlooks the Lanyang Plains and Turtle island in the Pacific Ocean.
The university entrance is located in the northeast corner of the
campus, near the Million-Member Fundraising Campaign Memorial.
The memorial, dedicated to Venerable Master's mother, is located in
the northwest. The Administrative Building, the final landmark on
the west axis, is also located on the side of the campus. The College
of Humanities and the library are located on the campus's east axis.
The stadium and event center is located southwest of campus while
the College of Social Sciences is located in the northern central area.
The Polytechnic College and the Department of Buddhist Studies are
located in the central-east region. Many Buddhist elements have
been incorporated into the campus. For example, the Administrative
Building is called the “Yun Chi” (Cloud Rising) Building and the Education Building is also known as the “De Hsiang” (Virtuous and Fragrant) Building. All the buildings along the hillside are eco-friendly, emphasizing environmental protection and harmony between humanity and nature. The university is designed with simplicity in mind; the campus is spacious with low-rise buildings. The use of traditional Chinese architecture expresses harmony between
the distinguishing features of Chinese culture and the university
campus.
