The Administrative Enforcement Agency’s Changhua County branch yesterday oversaw the handover of a former Buddhist temple from a family that had turned it into a Chinese communist shrine to a former nun of the temple.
Biyun Chan Temple in Changhua’s Ershuei Township (二水) was in 2011 acquired by Wei Ming-jen (魏明仁), a contractor and former military officer.
The nearly 100-year-old temple had served as a place of worship for local Buddhists. The temple hired Wei to build an expansion, but later lost the building to him due to a property rights dispute.
Photo: Chen Kuan-pei, Taipei Times
Wei kicked out the nuns residing at the temple, adding on to the structure and replacing Buddhist statues with images of Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and other Chinese Communist Party icons.
The Changhua County Government in September last year ordered that illegal additions on the property be demolished.
The contractor’s sister, Wei Su-tan (魏素丹), who had the rights to the property, failed to pay a NT$4.9 million (US$156,101 at the current exchange rate) demolition fee, so the government auctioned the property in April.
Photo: Chen Kuan-pei, Taipei Times
As a result, Shih Huai-tsung (釋懷宗), a former nun of the temple, regained ownership of the property under her legal name, Chen Fu-mei (陳富美).
Agency officials arrived at about 10:30am for the handover. They were accompanied by Changhua County Councilor Hsu Shu-wei (許書維) and officials from the county’s Cultural Affairs Bureau.
Former Changhua County commissioner Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷), who was in office when the demolition was carried out, was also there and livestreamed the handover so that the public could witness the event.
As the doors to Biyun Chan Temple had not been opened in nearly a decade, it took a locksmith considerable effort to open them, sources said.
Shih, 80, who became a nun at the temple at age 20, said she felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted from her.
With others’ help, she finally regained the property rights to the temple after a lawsuit that lasted more than a decade, she said.
Shih said she was not sure when statues of the main deities, bodhisattvas Avalokitesvara and Ksitigarbha, would be reinstalled, as much renovation is needed.
The contractor’s wife was at the temple with two of her friends to sign the paperwork for the handover, during which they accused the government of illegally demolishing parts of the temple.
The temple was acquired legally, but “illegal structures” are used for “political tactics,” she said, adding that plans were in place when asked whether her husband would “seek justice.”
The Changhua County Police Department deployed nearly 30 officers to the site to maintain order, but there was no physical violence, sources said.
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