Nan Hua Temple, Bronkhorstspruit南非南华寺

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

South Africa · Gauteng · Bronkhorstspruit · About an hour's drive northeast of Johannesburg.

First built

the 1990s · Built by Taiwan's Fo Guang Shan order; the largest Buddhist monastery in the Southern Hemisphere.

Overview

Nan Hua Temple was built in South Africa by Taiwan's Fo Guang Shan order, located in Bronkhorstspruit, about an hour's drive northeast of Johannesburg; it is the largest Buddhist monastery in the Southern Hemisphere, and also houses a Buddhist college training monastics of African nationality, serving as the core base for the spread of Chinese Buddhism in Africa. It must be honestly noted that the temple's nature is Buddhist rather than a Daoist temple; it is included here because no surviving building of any Daoist temple or early Chinese popular-religion shrine has been found in South Africa, and Nan Hua Temple is the only Chinese religious building of significant scale in the country, making it a necessary point of reference for understanding the pattern of Chinese religious distribution in South Africa — the religious affiliation of the South African Chinese community is predominantly Christian and Buddhist, with the traditional cults of Guandi and Tianhou (Mazu) found only sporadically on association altars and in households, standing in sharp contrast to the temple-centered forms found in Mauritius and Réunion.

Highlights

• Built by Taiwan's Fo Guang Shan order
• The largest Buddhist monastery in the Southern Hemisphere
• Houses a Buddhist college training monastics of African nationality
• A Buddhist monastery rather than a Daoist temple
• No surviving Daoist temple building has been found in South Africa