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1 A Mountain Monastery in an Urban Society
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1 A Mountain Monastery in an Urban Society FOGUANG HEADQUARTERS When in 1967 Master Xingyun first viewed what was to become Foguangshan (lit., ‘‘Buddha’s Light Mountain’’), the area was covered by impenetrable stands of bamboo and thick jumbles of vines and underbrush. The journey from Kaohsiung along small country lanes and narrow dirt tracks had taken several hours. The lay devotees who accompanied the master were not at all impressed by the site, even refusing to leave their small van to explore the area. Master Xingyun, however, saw great potential in the dense tangle and soon announced that he had found a new campus for his Buddhist college. Today, only a few pockets of bamboo remain, the rest having been replaced over the years by a succession of ever larger and more ornate buildings, gateways, and pavilions. What had once been bucolic lanes winding through a few isolated rice paddies have evolved into crowded thoroughfares; from atop Foguangshan one can even see a newly constructed major expressway jutting across the flat plain. Entry Section For the steady stream of motorists journeying between Kaohsiung and Pingdong Cities, Foguangshan’s most prominent structure is the eight-story-tall statue of Amitabha Buddha (Amituo Fo, the Buddha of Light who presides over the Western Pure Land of Bliss). The golden image gazes down on the plain, with both palms facing outward at waist level, the fingers of the right hand turned up to the sky, and those of the left pointing down to the earth, thereby making the mudra of light and wisdom. Although Amitabha usually stands with his back to the rest of Foguangshan, there are reports that, on several occasions, especially during land and sea dharma functions, he has twisted his torso to glance over the monastery itself. Just below Amitabha, the seven halls of the Longevity Funerary Complex are set into the steep slope in such a fashion as to mimic the architectural design of a pagoda. The complex’s lowest level includes Completion Hall (Yuanman Ting) and Lotus Hall (Hualian Dian), where, under the guidance of clerics, bereaved recite sutras to transfer merit to the recently deceased. Next-door is Foguangshan’s medical clinic, including its fleet of vans that daily journey through southern Taiwan ’s mountainous region to dispense care to the poor and housebound. The second level includes a temporary memorial hall for Ven. Xinping, Foguangshan’s A Mountain Monastery in an Urban Society • 9 second abbot, who died in 1995. His remains will eventually be removed to Transmission Hall, the columbarium specifically for high-ranking Foguang venerables that is soon to be constructed atop the mountain. Also on the second level are four hospice accommodations (each with a bedroom, bathroom, and funerary parlor ), where Foguang clerics and benefactors may pass their final hours surrounded by constant chanting and prayers. The entire third level has been set aside as a memorial hall for Chen Cheng, vice president of the Republic of China in the 1940s and 1950s and the father of Chen Lü’an, also a prominent player in Taiwan politics. The fourth and fifth floors of the complex remain vacant, although they will eventually house memorial halls for other prominent devotees. Filling the top two stories of the ‘‘pagoda’’ is the Hall of Rebirth (Wangsheng Tang), another location for funerals. Services are conducted here every morning and afternoon on behalf of those whose remains have found their final resting place on Foguangshan . An image of the Reclining Buddha dominates the temple. Behind this statue and along the walls of the upper story are tablets for those deceased whose descendants for one reason or another cannot keep the tablet at home or wish to have a second tablet placed in this auspicious location under the care of monastics. To either side of the shrine are three doors that open to narrow hallways, each of which is lined with storage spaces for cinerary urns, fifty thousand in all, including two thousand that have been donated to the Kaohsiung government to be used for indigent citizens of the county. All seven levels of buildings are surrounded by row on row of individual stupas that contain urns within which are the ashes of deceased devotees. Along the uppermost row are slightly more ornate stupas, reserved for those who during their life had accumulated an especially large amount of merit. Here are the remains, for instance, of the master’s mother, Liliu Yuying.1 Next to the stupa for...