Xinbeitou Shanguang Temple

The temple belongs to the Seizan Fukakusa branch of the Jodo (Pure Land) school and was a centre of worship for Japanese settlers at the time. Its pagoda enshrines relics of Shakyamuni Buddha brought from Japan. The temple derives from Zenkoji in Shinano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. It was founded on this site in 1932 by the 117th head of the Daihongan, a nun, who installed its first chief priest. In 1946, soon after Taiwan's Retrocession, the temple's lineage passed to a new abbot. In 1959 the temple's Japanese-style hall was destroyed in the August 7 Flood. A new hall was built in 1962, and in September that year a pagoda was built to enshrine the relics of Shakyamuni Buddha, the temple's most important feature. The main object of worship is Shakyamuni Buddha. The Shakyamuni Hall enshrines the Three Treasure Buddhas (Shakyamuni, the Medicine Buddha and Amitabha), and the Dharma King Hall enshrines Amitabha. The pagoda built in 1962 is modelled on Indian Buddhist architecture. It has three levels, named Fo, Bao and Ta (Buddha, Treasure and Pagoda). The top level holds the Buddha relics from Japan, and the middle and lower levels hold the remains of the dead. Bronze bells hang around the pagoda, four dragons guard the four directions on the middle level, and golden lotus flowers decorate the corners. The temple also keeps many relics from the Japanese era, such as the stone statues at the main door of the Dharma King Hall and 86 carved stone Buddhas. In the courtyard stands a monument in honour of Okamoto. It commemorates the Japanese mineralogist Okamoto Yohachiro, who in 1905 discovered hokutolite, a mineral rich in radioactivity, in the Beitou Creek valley upstream near Xinbeitou. The monument was erected in Beitou in 1940 and, after many moves, came to be kept at the temple.

Translated and shortened by DealTaipei from Taiwan's national tourism database. Sources are on the terms page.