Hsinchu Fa-Hua Monastery was founded in August , 1927. Fa-Hua Monastery was originally located in a piece of dryland, Tu-chi section, Hsinchu City, which was 5,950 square metersand originally belonged to the government. In order to expand the campus of National Chiao Tung University, the school purchased the very land from the government. Visited and investigated by the sixth successor Abbess, Venerable Long-Hui, the new location next to Yonghe Reservoir in Sanwan Village, Miaoli County, was selected. There’s a majestic view and widely-open land in this new Location and Mt. Yonghe’s just situated in the back of it. Also, the new location has forests and water flowing constantly all year round around the Monastery. This new location is really an ideal place and area to build the Monastery and a nice place where monks and laymen of the fourfold assembly have a chance to cultivate wisdom, morality, and concentration in the teachings of Buddhism. About one year after the first visit the main hall and the dormitory for the resident monastics wereunder construction. The construction work was finishedin 2003 and at the end of 2003, the Monastery was moved to its new location, Sanwan Village, MiaoliCounty. In order to install the statues of the holy Buddha, Consecration Puja was held on February 22rd, 2004. The main purpose of this dissertation is to critically study the present Fa-hua templefrom the original one and why the number of the believers in Fa-hua Monastery has become fewer and fewer. This paper also aims at analyzing how these members, ideas affect their attendance. I will study the history of the surrounding areas, the past and current locations, its economic situation, the organizational type, the influence in geography, the local beliefs in native gods, the use of space, and its relation to the architectures of the temples. In order to study and analyze these critical reasons, I mainly focusedon studying the background information of the two locations. Also itis important to investigate the differences between these two Monasteries.
