Nung Chan Monastery

The Nung Chan Monastery (pinyin: Nóngchánsì meaning 'Farming Ch'an') is a monastery at Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan. It was formally founded in 1975 by Dongchu, a scholar monk and disciple of renowned Chinese Buddhist master Taixu. It's named ' Farming Ch'an ' as its early residents dedicated themselves to Ch'an practice and grew their own food. Its spirit is based on 8th century Zen Master Baizhang Huaihai's aphorism, "A day without work is a day without food." Ven. Dongchu bought the 2.5 acres (10, 000 m2) land at Guandu Plain near Taipei in the end of the 1960s. As he didn't have many followers, he worked most of the land by himself and for the first few years, his only improvement is to have the land leveled. It then became a farmland worked by Ven. Dong Chu, his two disciples, and the neighboring villagers. In 1971, Ven. Dongchu finally began to build a two-story farmhouse that still existed today behind the main hall. The building was completed four years later in 1975. The land it was situated on was not zoned for religious purposes, but the building was classified as a shed as the building could separate the altar from other areas using a partition. The local authorities allowed this arrangement as the district was only marginally populated at the time. Ven. Dongchu was determined to promote Buddhist culture in Taiwan and cultivating Buddhist human talent.

Monastery data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).