Hsi Lai Temple

Hsi Lai Temple

Portal:Buddhism

Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple (Chinese: 佛光山西來寺; pinyin: Fóguāngshān Xīlái Sì) is a traditional Chinese Buddhist mountain monastery in the United States, one of the largest of its kind in the North American continent. It is located on the foothill region of Hacienda Heights, California, a suburb of Los Angeles County. The name "Hsi Lai" means Coming West in the sense of the "Great Buddhadharma Coming West."

The temple is affiliated Fo Guang Shan, one of Taiwan's largest Buddhist organizations. It is the order's first overseas branch temple, and serves as the North America regional headquarters for Fo Guang Shan. Hsi Lai was the site of the founding of Buddha's Light International Association, established in 1991. The temple, like its mother temple in Taiwan, practices Humanistic Buddhism, which incorporates all of the eight traditional schools of Chinese Buddhism - especially the Linji Chan and Pure Land schools - to provide guidance deemed most useful to modern life.