Photo Essay: Grand Mercy on Bamboo Grove Mountain

6 min readFeb 18, 2024

The Zhulin Mt. (Bamboo Grove Mountain) Guanyin Temple, located in the Linkou area of New Taipei, is a grand Minnan style temple dedicated to a historic 18 Arm Guanyin statue (one of the three original from Fujian when the Lungshan Temple in Taipei was built). The temple dates back to 1801, and was rebuilt in its present grandeur in 2000.

After Admiral Seizō Kobayashi (the first non civilian governor since 1919) took over as Govenor General of Taiwan in 1936, he began the aggressive cultural suppression movement of Kōminka (literally to “imperialise the population”). Local forms of worhsip were banned, and attempts were made to burn Zhulin Mt. Temple’s Guanyin statue.

Fortunately, the Chen Long brothers hid the statue and it was worshipped in secret for two years. Afterwards, the colonial government agreed to the local gentry’s proposal to build a Japanese style temple, at the present location. Over time, the temple’s structure became unsafe, and plans were made to rebuild it.

The architects faithfully recreated traditional Southern Chinese style temple architecture, having sent hired experts and scholars on fact finding trips to mainland China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and other places. High-quality building materials such as glazed tiles, Taiwan hinoki, mainland Qingdou stone, and mainland camphor wood carvings were purchased. The reconstruction of the temple adopts the architectural style of the Minnan style. Taiwan hinoki was used for the wood materials, with the main beam spanning an impressive 50 Taiwan feet. Many contemporary famous masters were hired to carve and retain the essence of traditional temple architecture.

It is now the largest example of traditional Hokkien architecture in Taiwan.

I visited the temple yesterday (Feb 17 2024) and took the following photos. As the temple was packed with large crowds and temporary tents (due to religious festival), I decided not to take cluttered panoramic photos, but instead focus on the stunning architectural Dharma ornaments. According to Master Chin Kung, traditional temples were places of education, where the solemn and profound principles of Dharma (such as humanitarianism, wisdom and compassion) could be enshrined, visually depicted, and propagated. To worship Guanyin is to have faith in the Bodhisattva, and emulate Guanyin’s deep wisdom and compassion.

As 2024 is the Year of the Dragon, the breathtaking temple Dragon carvings and ornaments are a great way to start the new year. And as wars currently grip the world, with fears of escalation, it is wise for all of us to contemplate Guanyin, and entrust ourselves to the Bodhisattva.