of this period were Ming loyalists who fled to the is-
land in clerical disguise, and legitimate clerics were few
in number and largely ignorant of Buddhist teachings.
Those whose names appear in the records were noted
for non-Buddhist accomplishments such as rainmak-
ing, painting, poetry, and playing go.Most clerics func-
tioned as temple caretakers and funeral specialists, and
did not engage in teaching, meditation or other Bud-
dhist practices.
The first known monk to migrate from the main-
land is Canche (d.u.), who arrived in 1675. Chen
Yonghua, a military commander, had built a monastery
called the Dragon Lake Grotto (Longhu Yan), and in-
vited Canche to serve as abbot. Canche later founded
the Blue Cloud Monastery (Biyun-si) on Fire Moun-
tain (Huoshan) near the present-day town of Chia-yi.
As the island became more settled, many more
monasteries were founded, particularly around the
capital city of Tainan. Notable among these early
monasteries are the Zhuxi (“Bamboo Stream”) Mon-
astery (1664); the Haihui (“Ocean Assembly”) Monas-
tery (1680); the Fahua (“Dharma-Flower”) Monastery
(1683); the Mituo (“Amitabha”) Monastery (d.u.); the
Longshan (“Dragon Mountain”) Monastery (1738);
the Chaofeng (“Surpassing Peak”) Monastery (regis-
tered 1763); and the Daxian (“Great Immortal”) Mo-
nastery (d.u.). Despite this vigorous activity, most of
the MONKSand NUNSin these monasteries had proba-
bly received only the novices’ ordination; there was no
ordaining monastery in Taiwan, and only scant records
exist of those who journeyed to the mainland to re-
ceive the full PRECEPTS.The Japanese colonial period
In 1895 the Chinese government ceded the island to
Japan, and the Japanese troops brought Buddhist
chaplains with them. These chaplains were eager to es-
tablish mission stations in order to propagate Japan-
ese Buddhism to the native population, but funding
from their head temples was insufficient, and only a
very small percentage of the Chinese population ever
enrolled in Japanese Buddhist lineages.
One of the most notable features of the Japanese
period was, in fact, the effort on the part of the localTAIWAN
A row of golden Buddha statues at Fo Kuang Shan Monastery, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. © Michael S. Yamashita/Corbis. Reproduced by
permission.