Fo Guang Shan Buddha Memorial Center
The Fo Guang Shan Buddha Memorial Center was built to house a tooth. It is believed to be the Buddha’s tooth.
The eight pagodas pictured below symbolize the Noble Eightfold Path, the fourth of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths, taught by Siddhārtha Gautama
Construction of the center in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, began in 2008, continues today, and was opened to the public at the end of 2011. The tooth is said to be Siddhārtha Gautama’s, the founder of the Buddhism, who died around 400 BCE. It was given to Foguang Shan founder Venerable Master Hsing Yun by Kunga Dorje Rinpoche, a monk charged with protecting the tooth after the destruction of its former home in Tibet’s Namgyal Monastery. Fo Guang Shan is a huge Buddhist organization that preaches Humanistic Buddhism, a modern Buddhist movement that tries to bring spirituality into the everyday lives of its practitioners.