Pi-Lu Monastery

Taichung


Built by a devout Taichung family in the 1920s, Pi-Lu Buddhist Monastery looks more like a mansion than a monastery, with its red-bricked facade, Doric columns and portal entrances. Framed by pines in the garden out front, the monastery stands graceful and reverent, though not without a hint of quirkiness, due to the unusual proportions of the western architectural features. This unusual monastery is tucked away in the foothills of Taiping Shan (太平山) in Taichung's northwestern district of Houli.

Inside the building is a lofty hall with large windows and a green ceiling – in Buddhist colour symbolism, green signifies the absence of desire. There are shrines to Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva and Gautama Buddha, the resident gods.

To the far left of the monastery is an interesting European-style dome building in white. It's a columbarium; if the door is open, you can see white stone tablets with the names and pictures of the dead stacked like bricks along the curved wall, a shrine to the Bodhisattva in the centre, and Buddhist chants playing in the background.

The scenic Houfeng Bicycle Path will take you here. If you're driving, head north on Hwy 13 from Taichung's Fengyuan District (豐原市). You'll see the sign for the Horse Farm (馬場) soon after passing Houfeng Bridge (后豐大橋). Turn right and you'll see the Horse Farm after 3km. In the fork right before the farm, bear right to enter the hill. You'll see the monastery after 2km. The travelling distance from Fengyuan District to the monastery is about 14km.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Taichung attractions

1. Taichung Folk Park

8.57 MILES

The park is divided into several sections but most of the interesting material is to the far right as you enter. Don't miss the collections of folk…

2. Paochueh Temple

9.53 MILES

This Buddhist columbarium-and-temple complex has a few unusual monuments – a giant golden laughing Buddha with oddly placed windows, and an old temple (c…

3. Taichung Broadcasting Bureau

10.12 MILES

Not far from Taichung Park is this leafy complex with a quaint western-style building, a small lily pond and some lovely trees. The bureau was built in…

4. Taichung Baseball Field

10.19 MILES

Adjacent to Taichung Broadcasting Bureau is a piece of interesting nostalgic sports architecture. This old stadium (1935) was once the home of several…

5. National Museum of Natural Science

10.31 MILES

A fantastic place for kids and botany fans, this massive museum has over 50 exhibit areas covering space, the environment, rainforests, gems and minerals,…

6. Taichung Park

10.59 MILES

A historical landmark, this beautiful 20-hectare park was designed by the Japanese in the early 1900s. The elegant Japanese pavilion was a later addition …

7. Qianyue Building

11.01 MILES

Highly Instagrammable semiderelict building with large areas covered by awesome graffiti. In the abandoned spaces of this former shopping mall, you may be…

8. Audit Village

11.11 MILES

An attractive example of the old building-turned-artsy-marketplace formula, the handful of old civil-servant dormitories known as Audit Village are now…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "taiwan/western-taiwan/taichung/attractions/pi-lu-monastery/a/poi-sig/1545098/357578",
      "destination": "Taichung",
      "continent": "Asia",
      "country": "Taiwan",
      "city": "Taichung",
      "position": "superzone"
    }