With the ideology of Humanistic Buddhism as point of analysis, combined with Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory and related architectural concepts, this dissertation will examine the meaning and value of Humanistic Buddhism through the lens of symbolism in order to discover how the ideology of Humanistic Buddhism is realized on the utilization and core values of an architecture. Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s Humanistic Buddhism bears the ideology of returning to the original intents of the founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni Buddha, which is achieved by combining the two values of “the Buddha as a Person” and “Humanistic Buddhism as the Refuge of the Human World”. These two concepts bears two importance: firstly, it emphasizes the spirit of focusing on humans, secondly, it returns to the importance of being in the human world. Its direction of cultivation lies on the “bodhisattva’s path”, and its most important concepts of time and space are found in“the present” and “pure land”. The architecture of the Buddha Museum contains different Buddhist structures such as Buddhist columns, Buddhist stupas and pagodas, Buddhist temples, as well as Buddhist statues. The architecture can be categorized in two ways; the first is the three elements of Buddha, time, and faith, which can be understood through historical symbolism and religious semiotics of the architecture of the Buddha Museum; and the second is the three elements of human, space, and life, which can be understood through the Buddha Museum’s architecture that realistically features Buddhism in daily life, as seen by its emphasis on nature and environmental protection, as well as the call for equality and life protection. Thus, the ideology of Buddha Museum’s architecture are “life protection”, “equality” and “the spirit of focusing on humans”, and its goal is to build a harmonious pure land on earth.
