Dharma Drum Mountain - History

History

Long before the establishment of the Jinshan headquarters, the development of Dharma Drum originated in the Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Culture (CHIBC) and Nung Chan Monastery. Both were founded by Dongchu, a prominent Ch'an monk back in Mainland China and later in Taiwan, who was also disciple of renowned modernist monk, Grand Master Taixu.

CHIBC was founded in 1956 and primarily active in promoting Buddhist culture mainly through publishing journals, such as the periodical Humanity Magazine. Nung Chan ('Farming Ch'an') was established in 1975. Dongchu died two years later, and at 1978, his principal disciple and Dharma heir, Sheng-yen became the new abbot of both Nung Chan and CHIBC. Under Master Sheng-yen's leadership, both institutions grew rapidly, the number of devotees in Nung Chan and students in CHIBC overwhelmed the building capacity. Therefore, in 1989, the institutions bought a plot of hilly land in Jinshan, Taipei County in order to build a new monastery that would accommodate the increasing devotees and students. Master Sheng-yen named the new monastery Dharma Drum Mountain – also in the same time Dharma Drum Mountain as an organization was formally created.

The architectural design of the monastery totally took seven years, the construction process took further time. Master Sheng-yen, in the framework of his environmentalism campaign, insisted the monastery buildings to follow and adjust to the natural contour of the hills – therefore it didn't change much of its natural geomorphologic features. He personally oversaw the whole process and carefully looked after the details. The first phase of DDM broke ground in 1993. The first phase of the project, which consists most of the complex of DDM we see today, was completed and inaugurated at 2001.