Meinong, located in the rural area of Kaohsiung, belongs to the plain terrain surrounded with mountains. The inhabitants are mainly Hakkas, who have been living on agriculture and leading a simple life. The residents’ main religions mostly included Zhaijiao sect (齋教), folk Buddhism, Taoism, Phoenix-Hall (鸞堂), or folk religions, rarely believing in Buddhism in the ancient times. Therefore, pure Buddhist's monasteries were rarely seen in this region. In fact, most of the temples here were mixed with the beliefs including Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Over time, there have been a lot of changes in the temples in this region. This study, taking Lingyun Temple as an example, aims at exploring how Zhaijiao sect (齋教) and folk Buddhism have been transformed into pure Buddhism.
Lingyun Temple was built in the period when Taiwan was governed by Japanese. The founder and the early abbots in Lingyun Temple were almost lay Buddhists. In this arduous pioneering period, Lingyun Temple was a Zhaijiao sect (齋教) . At the end of Japanese governing, Lingyun Temple has been gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple, since Venerable Sheng-Dou served as the Abbot. When Vererable Zong-Wei took over the position of the Abbot, the way of disseminating Dharma has changed quite a lot. On the one hand, Venerable Zong-Wei not only chanted the Buddhist Dharma in a very traditional way to lead the sentient beings out of the worldly three realms but also proactively spread Dharma to the people in Meinong. On the other hand, they have established ‘‘Lingyun Merit Association’’ in order to help the vulnerable groups. In the association, Buddhist Dharma, associated with charity, has led the followers to the way of being awaken.
With the efforts from every abbot, Lingyun Temple has existed for nearly one hundred years and it is regarded as a significant temple in Meinong. This thesis has discussed its whole history and gives some advantageous suggestions for the following researchers, hoping the temple will make its real spirits go on and on, and the research about the temple will never be stopped for any reason.
