Miaochong Temple

TAIWAN, Kaohsiung

The temple was founded in 1964 in the Qianzhen district of Kaohsiung. The abbot Hong’an decided to move the temple to Liugui district in 1984. The foundation of the new temple was laid in 1987 and it was completed in 2007. The founder’s hall and Manjusri Hall were damaged by the typhoon in 2009.
The temple occupies 10 ha. Along the central axis, there are the Seven Tathagata Hall, Maitreya Hall, Vairocana Hall, and the Perfect Understanding Hall, while along the sides there are the bell and drum towers, Medicine Buddha Hall, and Amitabha Hall. The Maitreya Hall has a hip-and-gable roof. It houses a 3.6 m high bronze statue of a seated cross-ankled Maitreya Buddha, behind which there is a niche containing Skanda. The Four Heavenly Kings stand along the sides of the hall. The walls are engraved with images of the Maitreya Pure Land. The Vairocana Hall is the main hall and has a double-eave hip roof. It houses a seated statue of Vairocana Buddha on a thousand-petal lotus throne. Each petal contains an image of the Buddha, which comes from the saying that the Tathagata is found in a single leaf. There are a thousand miniature Buddha images on the mandorla behind the statue. The ceiling is carved from camphor wood in the form of a mandala depicting the Five Dhyani Buddhas. The walls of the hall have images of the Five Dhyani Buddhas and are decorated with cloisonné enamel. On the side walls there are scenes of the Fifty-Three Visits of Sudhana, and depictions of the Eight Great Events from the Life of the Buddha.
The Perfect Understanding Hall has a hip-and-gable roof with a high ceiling. It contains an 8 m high statue of the Thousand-Armed, Thousand-Eyed Avalokitesvara. The surrounding walls are decorated with cloisonné images of the assembly of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from Vajrayana Buddhism. There are two 12 m high columns decorated with cloisonné images of the Five Hundred Arhats. The temple complex exhibits fine craftsmanship and each hall is distinctive.