Source: Central News Agency
TAIPEI, TAIWAN, November 9, 2001: Taiwan’s president, Chen Shui-bian, and 12 local and foreign dignitaries, including Swami Dayananda Saraswati, opened the Museum of World Religions” in suburban Taipei today. Chen said, “The inauguration of the museum is a pride and glory of the 23 million people of Taiwan, as it is the first of its kind in the world. The museum symbolizes respect, tolerance and benevolence.” The museum was developed by Master Hsin-tao Shih, abbot of Ling Jiou Mountain Wu Sheng Monastery, in Fulon, Taiwan. It cost US$58 million and took ten years to complete. There are on display numerous religious scriptures, artifacts, instruments, object d’art, more than 7,000 books on various religions, as well as 2,000-plus video and audio recordings on religious subjects. The Ling Jiou Mountain Wu Sheng Monastery, one of the five most prominent monasteries in Taiwan, was established on a mountain facing the Pacific Ocean in the northeastern township of Fulon by Hsin-tao Shih more than two decades ago. Hsin-tao Shih was born in Burma to Chinese parents in 1948. He came to Taiwan as a youth and practiced Buddhism, striving for virtue by isolating himself for years before taking formal monastic vows. Hsin-tao Shih decided to build the world religion museum some ten years ago in an attempt to break lay people’s superstitions, to help raise cultural standards and to help cultivate the inner virtues of human beings, a spokesman of the museum said.