Wat Phra Dhammakaya or the Dhammakaya Temple is a Theravada Buddhist and the largest temple in Thailand. The Temple was established on Magha Puja Day― February 20,1970. Since 1992 The Dhammakaya international meditation Centres has be conducted in the United Stated of America (California City). Now Wat Phra Dhammakaya has forty-six Dhammakaya Centres worldwide and sixty-nine Dhammakaya Meditation Centres abroad. Wat Phra Dhammakaya is a centre for international meditation study. Dhammakaya Meditation Center in Taiwan was opened on September 20, 1995. Now Taiwan has three branches including Wat Phra Dhammakaya Taipei, Wat Phra Dhammakaya Taoyuan and Wat Bhawana Taizhong. Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Thailand and all of branch Dhammakaya Centres aboard teaching “Dhammakaya Meditation” , wish is said to be a meditation method known to the Buddhas. The topic of this thesis is “ The Development of Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Taiwan ”. It looks at the development of Dhammakaya Temple in Taiwan and explores the conversion motivation of its Taiwanese members. It adopts the research method of in-depth interviews with Thai and Taiwanese members. Through the comparison of members of two ethnic groups, this thesis wishes the motivation for joining Dhammkaya Temple might be better understood.
