Fo Guang Shan Monastery

Date of Visited: 22 December 2010

First day at northern and second day at central of Taiwan.
Now, we are heading to southern part of Taiwan, Kaohsiung on the third day trip.

The first place that we visited in Kaohsiung is Fo Guang Shan. Does this sounds familiar for the Chinese? For those who unsure about this, no worry I will give a little bit background of this.

Fo Guang Shan literally means "Buddha's Light Mountain", is an international Chinese Mahayana Buddhist monastic order based in the Republic of China (Taiwan) and one of the largest Buddhist organisations. The one that located at Kaohsiung, is the headquarters which evolved from a mountaintop bamboo forest into the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan.

No-duality gate

There are many statues all over the place.

Visiting this monastery required you to have a strong stamina because there are hundred of stairs you need to climb on.

The main shrine

L.O.V.E. and P.E.A.C.E.

Finally, we saw the tall standing Golden Buddha statue and surrounded by 480 smaller golden Buddha statues.

I thought it's Winter, therefore I wore long sleeve but who knows it is such hot weather as in Malaysia. Maybe because located at southern.

Map of Fo Guang Shan

Fo Guang Shan branches are located almost all over the nations including New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, USA and etc.

If you love scenery and peaceful place, this is the place that suits you. Lots of things you can see and more knowledgeable you will gain from here. Our tour guide said that he ever brought a tourist somewhere from Europe. At first, the tour guide thought that fellow most likely will be around 2 hours and plus but at the end, that fellow himself and had being toured around for more than 6 hours.

[Credit to: Wikipedia, Fo Guang Shan Monastery homepage, Sinotour.com]