The influence of Buddhism on the Chinese culture is deep and wide since its spread into China in the Han dynasty. Buddhist missions face vast challenges in the hustle and bustle of industrial and commercial society, above all the manners to host dharma assembly should be reformed and innovated to meet the contemporary requirements. For that reason, this study aims to investigate the necessity of reform, the feasibility of innovation, and the suggestion of proposals about the manners to host dharma assembly. The survey in this study was carried out by random sampling from both the sangha and the laity groups. Effective returns to the survey counted 333, the response rate was 83%. These were 26 questions all together that were divided into two parts: reform and innovation. Hypothesis testing was undertaken by statistical analysis, including sample structure, descriptive analysis of survey data, variance analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The empirical results show that both the sangha and the laity groups support the reform of manners to host dharma assembly due to the technology development and societal/environmental transition. When a temple hosts a dharma assembly, the qualities of management and service will be effectively raised, if the work was carried out with cautious plan and design initially, and investment of enough human resource later. But the essence of traditional dharma assembly culture should not be sacrificed in spite of the innovation of hosting manners. From the viewpoints of the people under the survey, the change in the management seems to be necessary to some extent. Among the variables about the innovation, no significant correlation between the culture and the human resource could be found, which means, after the author’s opinion, simple life and pure minds should be the belief of Buddhists, as well as the aim to be devoted to. The results from this study show that reform and innovation of hosting dharma assembly is positively supported by the subjects except the relative conservation in the respect of changing Buddhism culture. It means the ways to reform the dharma assembly must be carried out with cautions plan, which is a hey point for the Buddhism missions.
