There are a large number of temples in the mountainous areas of Taiwan. After the 921 Jiji earthquake, the temples of nearby Chelungpu Fault or the shear banding were found, some of which collapsed, and some suffered only minor damage. This thesis has investigated on the major causes of the collapse of temples or remained unharmed ones such as Wanfo Temple, Baihou Temple and Kaunghui Culture and Education Center when the 921 Jiji Earthquake hit. Results have shown that although the temples have met the design rules of Feng Shui Theory and seismic design specifications of buildings, shear banding or faulting through completed temple foundation results in fall failure or collapse. The main reason is that tectonic earthquakes are disaster-causing earthquakes, and the primary effect of tectonic earthquakes is faulting or shear banding, accounts for over 90% of the total energy of tectonic earthquakes; the secondary effect is ground vibration. It only accounts for less than 10% of the total energy of the tectonic earthquake. Therefore, once the design of temples has only prevented the ground vibration in the tectonic earthquake, it is inevitable that fall failure or collapse will occur under shear banding due to grab the small and let go of the big. For the temples of fall failure and collapse in the 921 Jiji Earthquake, though some of the temples were in situ reconstructed after the earthquake, based on the design specifications after ground vibration fortification level has increased. However even the ground vibration fortification level was increased, it did not help to improve the resistance of the shear banding. Thus the reconstructed temples will still crack under the effect of shear banding for the felt tectonic earthquakes. Finally, this thesis therefore recommends the design of temples not only comply with the temple Feng Shui Theory and seismic design specifications of buildings released by the government in 1974, but also the temple foundation should not be located on the faulting or shear banding zone. Only in this way can the temple be prevented from falling or collapsing in the future tectonic earthquake.
