Foguang Shan — not sweetness and light?

Micheal Turton of “The View from Taiwan” fame writes about Hsing Yun’s political leanings in relation to an article that I recently photographed about Fo Guang Shan:

“WaPo with a travel piece on Fo Guang Shan and its pro-China, pro-KMT, anti-Taiwan leader, Hsing Yun. No mention of the latter, of course, all is sweetness and light for a “humanistic” Buddhist leader who was a member of the leadership of a brutal authoritarian political party that murdered thousands of people in Taiwan. It’s a travel piece, can’t expect too much. In researching this I noticed Hsing Yun’s Wiki page has been scrubbed. It mentions his political involvement but no longer notes that he is a former KMT central standing committee member; as I recall it used to. I collected some stuff on Hsing Yun back in 2009, including his call for obliterating the local Taiwanese identity.“Thanks for bringing that up, Micheal. I never knew, but Fo Guang Shan also does a vast amount of good! (pictured above is the article as it appeared on the front page of the Washington Post Travel Section, and below is the rest)

I must say, politics aside, I’m still pleased as punch to have photos published by The Washington Post! And it is a great article if you are into doing a Buddhist retreat or reading about one.