My Trips: Chung Tai Chan Monastery (中台禪寺) at Puli Township

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Chung Tai Chan Monastery (中台禪寺) at Puli Township - Taichung, Taiwan

The Chung Tai Chan Monastery (中台禪寺) (N24.01069 E120.945309) is located at Puli Township of Taichung, Taiwan. It's the Biggest Monastery in the World and Taiwan for the moment.

"Following the Grand Master’s compassionate vow to provide a complete environment for all who wish to learn the Buddhist teachings, the design of Chung Tai Chan Monastery began in 1992."

"After three years of planning and seven years of construction, this landmark building opened its doors on September 1, 2001, initiating a new era of Buddhism dissemination for Chung Tai." Source from here.

There was no entrance fee, we got our cameras ready and started another photography session in the Monastery.

The Main entrance of Chung Tai Chan Monastery

Once we stepped in, there was a Golden Bridge appeared in front of us.

The Golden Bridge

The Write up about the Golden Bridge

And the whole Bridge was made by brass...(some wording on the bridge)

And there were many small lions on the railing of the bridge, all of them have different design...maybe they have different meaning by each of them.

The little lion on the bridge

Tourist from China Mainland

We continued to walk up the main building...there were 2 guardians on both side of the main entrance to the building. And there was a huge Buddha statue on the other side of the Chung Tai Chan Monastery.

The two Guardians at both side

Another Giant Buddha Statue opposite of the Monastery

The Main entrance to the building

If you like to know more about the Chung Tai Chan Monastery, you can visit here (in Chinese). And also there was a write up below...

The write up about the Chung Tai Chan Monastery

Before we step in, the was a Nice Laughing Buddha statue in the middle, and two Red lions on both side...

The Laughing Buddha

The Red Lion

I was admiring by the unique design of the ceiling for quite some times....it was Nice!

The Unique Design of the Ceiling

Then we noticed there were Four Huge Guardian Gods situated at the four corners, these 4 guardians named - Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王). Each of whom watches over one cardinal direction of the world. For more info about the Four Heavenly Kings, please click here. (The 4 guardians seems like also the big pillars of the hall).

Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王)

We took some times in the 1st hall and proceed to the other hall of the building...

The staircase access to another hall of the building

The Shih-cha-mo-ni 釋迦牟尼 (Deity) Statue spotted after the staircase...

Shih-cha-mo-ni 釋迦牟尼 statue

On the both side, there were two Deities which I'm not familiar with...

On the right...

I over heard from the Tour Guide of other tourist group who explained about the deity above is 'half human half evil'. Can you recognize which side is human?! :)

On the left...

The Monastery is So Huge that we won't be able visit every corner of it due to limited time we had...there are still many area yet to explore...hopefully we still have chance to visit in the future...