Taiwan Today

Although Chen Hui-chun (陳慧君) has long considered herself a Buddhist, she can’t say when she became one. As a child, she remembers her mother taking her to the temple to burn incense and make offerings of canned food, cookies, and fruit. She also learned to repeat the Buddhist chant “Amitabha” whenever she needed spiritual strength. But until recently, she had never given much thought to what it re­ally meant to be a Buddhist and had never read any of the teachings of the religion.

About five years ago, Chen noticed that people around her were starting to take a greater interest in Buddhism. “All of a sudden, everybody was wearing prayer beads on their wrists,” she recalls. “Books on Zen and Buddhist culture were mak­ing the bestseller list, and there were frequent announce­ments for Buddhist speeches, medita­tion classes, and re­treat camps.” When a friend introduced her to a monk, she was impressed enough by his talks that she even­tually went through a ceremony to be­come one of his followers. “I barely knew what the religion was about,” she says, “but I enjoyed listening to people who could look at things from a Buddhist per­spective, which is always more forgiving. I wanted to find the ‘pure land’ of Bud­dhism in this chaotic society.”

Chen’s experience has been repeated by thousands of people around Taiwan in the last decade, creating a phenomenal in­crease in Buddhist followers. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the island’s population of Buddhists has grown from 800,000 in 1983 to 4.8 million in 1993, a 600 percent increase. The number of regis­tered Buddhist temples has multiplied as well, from 1,157 to 4,020 for the same pe­riod, and monks and nuns now number more than 9,000, up from 3,470 in 1983.

The ranks of other faiths have also swelled in recent years. Taoism—the is­land’s leading religion before 1984—added more than 2 million followers over the same ten-year period, for a total of 3.6 mil­lion. And Christian religions, primarily Ca­tholicism and Presbyterianism, have grown from 600,000 to more than 700,000. Yet by far the biggest gain has been in Buddhism.

But the religion is not only attracting new followers. The growing numbers also reflect a fundamental change in the way Buddhism has been practiced in Taiwan for hundreds of years. Philosophy profes­sor Yang Hui-nan (楊惠南) explains that Buddhism has gained followers primarily by becoming more visible and active in society. “Instead of staying passively be­hind temple walls chanting and meditat­ing, monks and nuns are traveling the streets to publicize their religion,” Yang says. “You see them giving speeches, teaching meditation, and publishing books. For the past decade, Buddhist groups have been trying more aggres­sively than ever to attract new followers.”

At the same time, the public has be­come more responsive to the zeal of reli­gious leaders. Yang attributes this to the rapid social change that has taken place in Taiwan. “Chaotic times are times for reli­gion,” he says. “People need something spiritual to cling to.” But this does not ac­count for why Buddhism has far out­stripped other faiths in attracting followers. “It’s really because of the monks and nuns reaching out,” Yang says. “That’s what has made the difference.”

This trend toward reaching out into society can be traced back to the concept of “worldly Buddhism” advocated in the 1930s by the Mainland Chinese monk Tai-hsu (太虛). (Like all monks and nuns, Tai-hsu adopted the surname Shih 釋, but is known by his first name. Those who are younger and less established are addressed by the title “Venerable,” whereas those of higher standing are called “Master.”) Master Tai-hsu op­posed the emphasis of the Pure Land sect—until then the most influential school of Buddhism in China—which encouraged followers to focus on trying to reach nirvana through prayer and de­ity worship (see story on page 20). He advocated a Buddhism that was centered on the living world. Some of his disciples elaborated on his ideas, particularly the well-known monk Yin-shun (印順), who brought his teacher’s message to Taiwan in the 1950s. Master Ying­-shun felt that direct­ing one’s spiritual endeavors on seek­ing nirvana was an escapist attitude. Like his mentor, he encouraged his disciples to assume an active role in society.

Another important influence in the early stages of the local movement was the magazine Torch of Wisdom, which was first published in the 1960s. By helping establish a network of clubs on university campuses and appealing to young intellectuals, the magazine drew in more followers who were interested in studying the teachings of Buddhism rather than merely going through superfi­cial worship rituals.

But worldly Buddhism didn’t really take off until the early 1980s, when a number of monks and nuns began gaining widespread attention with a hands-on ap­proach—not only in attracting followers and donations, but also in promoting char­ity work and social causes. Today, these leaders are at the helms of high-profile temples and foundations, and in some cases their names are practically house­hold words.

Master Hsing-yun (星雲), for exam­ple, has developed a highly popular image as the leader of Fokuangshan, the largest network of Buddhist temples on the is­land. Having explicitly stated the in­tention of carrying out the ideals of Master Tai-hsu, he has gotten his message across at huge rallies, through magazines and books, and on Buddhist TV programs. And Master Cheng-yen (證嚴), a disci­ple of Master Yin-shun, heads the island’s largest and best-known charity organiza­tion, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, which runs a hospital and has 1 million active members. Like most high-ranking Buddhists, Master Cheng­-yen frequently appears in the media, often accompanied by celebrities and politi­cians. Recently, she was joined by Presi­dent Lee Teng-hui at the opening of the Tzu Chi Medical College.

Many of today’s monks and nuns are taking up even more non-traditional roles, getting involved in everything from higher education to environmental causes. Master Hui-wan (曉雲), for example, re­cently founded the island’s first Buddhist college, and Master Sheng-yen (聖嚴) of the Dharma Drum Mountain Cultural and Educational Foundation has undertaken numerous environmental projects and has also raised more than US$150,000 for city and county drug rehabilitation programs. Others have become regular participants in wildlife conservation hearings and anti­-nuclear protests.

According to Professor Yang Hui­-nan, the community-centered approach that has developed among Buddhists in Taiwan is really nothing new in the his­tory of the religion. In centuries past, when Buddhists were suppressed or per­secuted by China’s rulers, they did take refuge in their monasteries. But whenever they were in favor, as in the ninth and tenth centuries, they emerged and took part in the world. “In the Tang dynasty, Buddhist groups were making great con­tributions to society,” Yang says. “They opened banks and offered zero-interest loans to the poor. They opened shelters providing temporary boarding for the needy. They did almost everything you can think of.” Chinese Buddhism, he ex­plains, originally taught monks and nuns that their mission was to deliver all beings, not just themselves. The current trend is again heading in this direction. ‘‘I’d call it a Buddhist renaissance,” Yang says.

Buddhist groups in Taiwan have made their biggest impact through well-organized charity services. As of 1993, accord­ing to the Buddhist Association of the ROC, they were operating or giving sub­stantial financial support to seven hospi­tals, ten homes for the elderly, five orphanages, and three clinics. And of the millions of U.S. dollars in donations that Buddhist groups receive every year, more than a third is passed on as aid to poor families or victims of natural disasters.

While nearly every Buddhist organi­zation and many temples are involved in charity work, the Tzu Chi Foundation has been at the forefront. Over the years, it has provided tens of thousands of needy families with financial assistance, health care, household repairs, and other volun­teer services.

The Tzu Chi Hospital, set up in 1986 in Hualien, is the largest in eastern Tai­wan, an area where access to medical aid has traditionally been below average. The hospital has 750 beds and an outpatient clinic that serves about 1,500 people a day. Patients pay according to their finan­cial ability. The Tzu Chi Foundation was also instrumental in setting up the island’s first data bank for bone-marrow donors, attracting about 50,000 people to sign up and undergo tests as potential donors­—the largest such listing for ethnic Chinese bone marrow.

Plans are also under way for a branch hospital in the south-island county of Chiayi. Again, the intention is to bring medical services where they are most needed. The area currently has only seven hospital beds for every 10,000 people, far below the islandwide average of forty-six beds. “We try not to duplicate the services provided by public health departments,” says Hsu Hsiang-ming (徐祥明), an ad­ministrator at the Tzu Chi headquarters. “We don’t intend to substitute for what the government should be doing. We just want to supplement it.”

Master Cheng-yen, the founder of Tzu Chi, started out in 1966 with only a small-scale fundraising project for the needy. She encouraged housewives to make a small donation from their daily food budget. At the same time, a group of followers raised money by making and selling baby shoes. Today, Tzu Chi has developed from a thirty-member organi­zation to one of approximately 10,000 volunteers and more than 1 million active members. Another 2 million people are listed as having made donations. Through such donations, the foundation draws in millions of U.S. dollars every year. In ad­dition, Tzu Chi has an agreement with the Chinatrust Commercial Bank, which of­fers its patrons a special Lotus credit card. For each purchase made on the card, the bank donates about .3 percent of the pur­chase price to the foundation.

Disaster relief is another area in which Buddhist organizations are making a distinct mark. This past summer, for ex­ample, Tzu Chi, along with several other Buddhist groups, was quick to provide help when a series of typhoons hit the is­land and caused severe flooding in central and southern Taiwan. “We organized emergency groups in different areas that assisted the county governments in transporting food, clothing, and drinking water to flooded areas, and joined the police in rescue work,” says Yang Liang-ta (楊亮達), a fundraising volunteer. The relief effort also continued after the flood waters had subsided. “Volunteers cleaned up the streets, fixed broken fences, and stood on the street corners asking for do­nations,” Yang says.

Tzu Chi has also been at the forefront in extending its relief aid overseas. In 1991, it became the first charity organiza­tion in Taiwan to undertake disaster work in Mainland China, collecting almost US$12 million to help flood victims. Many volunteers traveled to the stricken villages at their own expense to help with reconstructing homes and schools. The foundation has also provided aid and vol­unteers for disaster relief in Mongolia, Ethiopia, Nepal, and Bangladesh. And in Rwanda this year, Tzu Chi has been a major provider of medical supplies, working in cooperation with the Paris­-based group Medecins du Monde. Al­though Tzu Chi has encountered some criticism for going overseas rather than concentrating all its charity efforts in Taiwan, the organization remains com­mitted to including other countries in its relief work. “Taiwan used to be a recipi­ent of foreign aid—now that we are able to offer help, we feel obliged to do so,” Yang says. “Shouldn’t compassion tran­scend race, nationality, and geographical distance?”

The extensive charity work under­ taken by groups such as Tzu Chi has helped to further the cause of worldly Buddhism. “Our master [Cheng-yen] says the goal of a real Buddhist is to carry out Buddhist ideals, not to study Buddhism per se,” says Tzu Chi administrator Hsu Hsiang-ming. “The real meaning of Bud­dhism lies in doing. At Tzu Chi, we put words into action.”

Education is another sphere of influence in which Buddhists are increasingly making their mark. Buddhist clubs continue to play a role on college campuses, with more than ninety associations now active. In addition, more than thirty institutes de­voted to the religion operate around the island, and about seventy kindergartens and half a dozen middle schools are sup­ported by Buddhist groups.

But the most significant development in the area of education has been the Huafan College of Technology and Hu­manities, founded in 1990 by 83-year-old Master Hiu-wan in Taipei county. The is­land’s first Buddhist-affiliated four-year college, Huafan has about one thousand students and departments for industrial management, engineering, architecture, industrial design, Chinese literature, and foreign languages and literature. In addi­tion, it has a Graduate Institute of Asian Humanities.

An experienced teacher—in primary and secondary schools as well as universities—Master Hiu­-wan first began to consider opening a Buddhist college in the 1960s. Her friends encouraged her, emphasizing that Taiwan had colleges run by Pro­testants and Catho­lics, but none run by Buddhists. Although stymied by a government freeze on new uni­versities, she was able to start a small­-scale Institute of Sino-Indian Buddhist Studies in 1980. When the freeze was lifted in 1986, she found a piece of land and set about raising money. An accom­plished artist, she started out by selling her paintings in Hong Kong and else­where. Her followers also rallied behind her, setting up a number of fundraising campaigns. Eventually, they were able to raise the minimum US$12 million in capi­tal required by the government for estab­lishing a university, and Master Hui-wan set about building her school. Current fundraising efforts continue to focus on relatively small private donations rather than pursuing large corporate sponsors. “We avoid accepting money from big businesses,” Master Hiu-wan says. “We don’t want them to become major inves­tors because it could have a negative ef­fect on our original educational ideals. Money is critical, but we can’t accept it from just any source.”

While students at the school study standard subjects, they also take courses in Buddhist philosophy. “I want to teach my students and faculty to cultivate wis­dom and mercifulness and to have a good influence on others,” says Master Hiu­-wan. “In setting up this school, I’ve planted some seeds that I hope will sprout and grow into a tree that can spread more seeds and make a difference in this world.”

Three other universities supported by Buddhist groups are also under construc­tion. Last year, the Dharma Drum Moun­tain Foundation began building a College of Humanities and Social Sciences in Tai­pei county. The school will emphasize religious studies and translation and is scheduled to open in several years. Hsuan-tsang University (named after a famous Tang dynasty monk), sponsored by the Buddhist Cultural and Educational Foundation and located in the north-is­land city of Hsinchu, plans to start recruit­ing students in 1996.

Nearest to completion is a liberal arts university being built by Fokuangshan in the east-island county of Ilan. It will begin accepting students next year. Fokuang­shan also promotes Buddhist studies through a special annual examination that gives those who are interested a chance to test their knowledge of the religion. First begun five years ago, the examination is now international, with versions available in more than ten languages. This year, some 200,000 people took the test in one hundred locations around the world.

Many Buddhist groups have tried to reach out to the people through publica­tions. While free leaflets and newsletters have long been available at temples and similar locations, many or­ganizations are now putting out thick, professional-looking magazines that are able to attract paying subscribers. Among the forty-eight Buddhist periodicals regis­tered with the government, some of the more popular are Fokuangshan’s monthly magazine Universal Gale, Dharma Drum Mountain’s Life, and Golden Lo­tus, published by a group of Buddhist supporters.

With a circulation of approximately 36,000 worldwide, Universal Gate is the largest and most impressive of these pub­lications. After starting up in 1979 as a small give-away that simply reported on the internal affairs of Fokuangshan and always featured the standard Buddhist saint on its cover, the magazine under­went a makeover five years ago. With the intention of appealing to both believers and nonbelievers, Universal Gate became bigger, livelier, and more colorful. It now sells for about US$4.50 a copy and looks almost like any lifestyle magazine, with two hundred pages of feature stories, col­umns on art, society, and psychology, and a wide variety of advertisements.

The magazine maintains its religious identity through inspirational articles, comic strips on Buddhist classics, reports on controversial topics among Buddhist circles, and announcements of speeches, seminars, retreat camps, and other Bud­dhist-sponsored activities. Says Ven. Yung-yun (永芸), a Fokuangshan nun and the president of Universal Gate, “A magazine can be a powerful tool in pro­moting Buddhism. We want to attract readers and have an impact on society.”

Besides its magazine, Fokuangshan also runs the Fo Kuang Publishing House, which has put out about three hundred books, cassettes, and videotapes since it was established in 1959. While the com­pany’s earlier publications focused on serious works, such as collections of sutras and scholarly papers on Buddhism, recent titles also include more popular books, including prose, poetry, and fic­tion with Buddhist themes. Some of the biggest sellers, which are available at many bookshops and convenience stores, focus on Zen approaches to health and career development.

A separate Department of Editing and Compilation run by the temple is in­volved in several ongoing projects, including writing interpretative notes and pronunciation guides for classical Bud­dhist texts, as well as translating such texts into modern Chinese. Another major project is a Buddhist dictionary.

Master Hsing-yun, the leader of Fokuangshan, is himself a writer—one reason why the group has put so much emphasis on publishing. “He has written biographies of Sakyamuni [the founder of Buddhism] and his disciples,” Ven. Yung-yun says, “and he even wrote a story about a monk that was made into a TV serial drama a couple of years ago.” In fact, Master Hsing-yun has himself had a long-time presence on television. In 1979, Fokuangshan first began running a regu­lar Buddhist-oriented TV spot, which con­tinued on and off over the years. Today, it airs a five-minute program, called Master Hsing-yun Says, every weekday morning on CTS, one of Taiwan’s three broadcast stations. Numerous other Buddhist groups have followed Fokuangshan’s lead, airing their own videotaped programs on reli­gious channels sponsored by the island’s many cable TV companies.

Another way in which Bud­dhist groups have reached into the community is by em­bracing environmental causes. One of the leaders in this area, the Dhar­ma Drum Mountain Foundation, started by making its own temple a model of en­vironmental awareness. Among other things, it uses non-polluting baking-soda detergents, recycles bottles and paper, and holds an annual garage sale to help people pass on their secondhand items rather than discard them. Followers are encour­aged to choose reusable substitutes for plastic bags, packaged chopsticks, sty­rofoam plates, and other disposables. Dharma Drum volunteers are also in­volved in many neighborhood cleanup projects, and the foundation has raised money to help establish a project at the Tai­pei City Zoo for treating wounded birds.

Ven. Kuo-hsiang (果祥), a Dharma Drum nun, says the foundation has not taken this direction simply because anti­pollution and conservation have become hot topics. “It’s not just to jump on the bandwagon,” she says. “It’s because for two thousand years, Buddhism has taught us not to kill or waste, a philoso­phy that happens to coincide with mod­ern environmental protection concepts. We are promoting the correct Buddhist way.” The philosophy actually goes even further, Ven. Kuo-hsiang explains, by linking protection of the natural environ­ment with protection of the spiritual en­vironment. “Our final goal,” she says, “is through environmental protection to purify the human mind and upgrade the hu­man character.”

One way Dharma Drum combines these two concerns is by urging people to be less wasteful in conducting weddings and birthday parties—celebrations that often involve elaborate expense in Chi­nese society. Rather then spending money on huge banquets and entertainment, Dharma Drum encourages more modest and meaningful activities. In October this year, the foundation sponsored a group wedding ceremony and simple reception that were preceded by lectures on how to get along with one’s spouse. And in Sep­tember, a group birthday party for senior citizens featured speeches by children thanking their parents for everything they had done for them.

The growing tendency in Taiwan to hold increasingly extravagant funerals­—with some families putting on outdoor stage shows featuring singers and, on occasion, even striptease artists—has also been targeted by Dharma Drum. “The mobile stage shows are indecent and are destroying Taiwan’s image,” says Ven. Kuo-hsiang. Even standard funerals, she says, can be problematic. They may go on for weeks and are often set up on street-sides or in alleys under makeshift tents, obstructing traffic and causing noise pollution. And sometimes great quantities of spirit money are burned as sacrificial offerings, a practice that may be religious in intention, but that also pollutes the air. Dharma Drum funer­als are more modest and spiritually ori­ented. “Many rituals are not necessary,” Ven. Kuo-hsiang says. “We organize a group that includes volunteers and a monk or nun who chant sutras. We don’t burn spirit money, and we hardly even burn any incense.”

While Dharma Drum ceremonies are usually held for members and their fami­lies, the foundation hopes that the mes­sage will eventually have a wider impact. It also hopes that the efforts to avoid ex­travagance and to conduct oneself respon­sibly will spill over into everyday life. “We don’t want just a superficial show of respect and politeness among people,” Ven. Kuo­-hsiang says. “We want people to be respon­sible to their families and neighbors and to be ethical in all the roles they play.”

While the new approaches of worldly Buddhism have attracted millions of new followers, they have also given rise to some detractors. Some crit­ics feel that monks and nuns are becoming too secular by getting overly involved in social activities, and that the true role of Buddhism can only be found by delving into the sutras and meditating in isolation. Some groups continue to practice along these lines, but the new Buddhists strongly defend their direction. Ven. Kuo-hsiang of Dharma Drum insists that Sakyamuni practiced Buddhism by get­ting in touch with the public. “The only time he spent interpreting the scriptures,” she says, “was for two or three minutes on the way to the city, where he and his dis­ciples went every day to beg for alms. They didn’t hide themselves away in the forest, but were involved in a lot of social work. My teacher [Dharma Drum founder] Master Sheng-yen, decided to practice Buddhism the Buddha’s way.”

The disciples of other masters voice similar arguments. Ven. Yung-yun of Fokuangshan, for example, defends the organization’s founder against criticisms that his publishing house, television spots, and other ventures are too commercial­ized. “Some people say, ‘Oh! That monk!’ when they think of Master Hsing­-yun,” she says. “That’s because they don’t know him. He wants to reach out in any way he can. That’s why he set up tem­ples inside office buildings in the busiest areas of the city and why he takes advan­tage of modern tools. He told us never to be afraid of taking new steps to spread Buddhism.”