Zhuxi Temple

TAIWAN, Tainan

Zhuxi means Bamboo Creek. It was built between 1664 and 1665 and is one of the earliest Buddhist temples in Taiwan. In 1693, magistrate Wu Guozhu added a school next to the temple. Many works of poetry have been composed at this school by both scholars and visitors, and a collection of poems was published. The temple has been renovated many times and in 1976 it was reconstructed. Only the old temple gate is in its original form.
The main buildings of the temple include the old and new temple gates, the Great Hero Hall, the Bodhisattva Hall, the bell and drum towers, and the Lotus Pagoda. The old temple gate has arched doorways and a double-eave hip-and-gable roof in five sections.
The Great Hero Hall and the Bodhisattva Hall are both three-story buildings with a double-eave hip-and-gable roof. They have bracket sets, paintings, and decorated corbeling that underpins the beams. The main doors are full-height glass panels, which gives the traditional Chinese architecture a touch of modernity. The Great Hero Hall houses statues of Sakyamuni Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, and the Medicine Buddha. It has a portico at the front guarded by a pair of white elephants. The Bodhisattva Hall contains a statue of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva flanked by the Eighteen Arhats. On the upper story of the Bodhisattva Hall there is the Great Compassion Hall. It is painted with 108 Buddha images, each of which represents a verse of the Great Compassion Dharani. The temple has a large collection of inscribed poems, couplets, and horizontal boards.