FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM
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institutional relationships developed. The most important of these relationships involved the overseas sub-temple. Sub-temples were wholly-owned branches of a large monastery. Most were in mainland China, but Ku Shan near Foochow had its main sub-temple overseas. This was the Chi-le Ssu in Penang, the origins of which go back to 1885. In that year a delegation of Ku Shan monks were sent to Penang to raise money. One of them, Miao-lien, won a large following among the laity there. This enabled him to construct between 1891 and 1904 an immense, rather garish temple that still covers a whole hillside outside Penang. It is, in fact, the largest Chinese temple in Malaya. Under local law it was an independent institution, but in Chinese Buddhist eyes it was a branch of Ku Shan. That is, the parent institution had the right to appoint its abbots and to audit its accounts. There was frequent intercourse between the two, since not only were there officers going out to take up their appointments, but there were novices and devotees from Penang going back to Ku Shan to receive ordination.55 The Chi-li Ssu provided Ku Shan with a base for raising funds overseas, but also benefited financially itself. For example, Yüan-ying stayed there in 1939 when he was raising funds for the sangha ambulance corps; but such was his eminence that the temple enjoyed a sharp increase in the donations for its own improvement and repair56.
One of the reasons for the success of the Chi-le Ssu was that most of the residents of Penang originated in Fukien.57 They could understand the dialect of the monks sent out by Ku Shan and were proud of the fact that it was the largest monastery in their native province. Penang, one might say, was in Ku Shan's sphere of influence. Another such sphere was Taiwan, also settled by immigrants from Fukien. Although there was no sub-temple there, Ku Shan lay just across the straits from Tamsui, so that travel to and fro was quick and convenient. Some Taiwanese monks (an elite, perhaps) went to Ku Shan to be ordained and to receive a few years of training. Their names are given in the Ku Shan ordination yearbooks, as are the names of many Taiwanese upasakas and upasikas. According to one informant, the Japanese authorities encouraged this religious traffic with the mainland and facilitated entry and exit procedures. Perhaps they saw a new way of using Buddhism for their own ends.