being a volunteer in fo guang shan | 2026

hey guys!

this time i'm gonna tell you about my experience being a volunteer in Fo Guang Shan temple in Kaohsiung. so it was the winter holiday and my friend asked me if i wanted to join him on a volunteering program there. as much as scary it was, i still said yes, because i promised myself that i would try out different things, that scares me and out of my comfort zone. and since i'm also in Taiwan, why not experience the authentic Chinese New Year celebration here, right?

the days leading up to the volunteering days, i was actually so lazy and starting to regret my decision to come here, haha. but it is what it is, i cannot back down. so i went to Kaohsiung with my 2 friends.

after arriving there, it was so hot in Kaohsiung, like a summertime, whereas it was winter in Taipei. but as an Indonesian, of course I prefer the warm weather, so it was very nice and comfortable. we arrived in Kaohsiung around 4pm, and decided to have dinner first because the Fo Guang Shan temple was still 1 hour away from our arrival station. and remember that all the Buddhist friends do not eat meat, so that was like the last day for me eating meat before being a vegetarian for 3 days straight haha.

we arrived in Fo Guang Shan at 7pm, it was so tiring, but the temple was so lively, 熱鬧, and full of people. there was a lightshow every night during that 7 days celebration of Chinese New Year, so me and my friends watched that. it was absolutely splendid. after walking around for a few hours, we decided to go back to our dorm to rest after a long journey from Taipei, and also because the next day is work day (omg). the dorm was kinda like a capsule room so it was very nice. it's even better than my school's dorm lol.

day 1 of volunteer

started of with breakfast in the cafeteria. the food was like vegetables, tofu, beans. yeah that's all i ate for 3 days straight. after having breakfast, the volunteers gathered together for a briefing, then we went to a temple to do the morning prayer. i did not join the prayer because i felt out of place, i am not a buddhist, so i just waited outside. my shift was in the night, so during the day, i spent it by exploring the temple. it was so big. there were museums, statues, gift shop, lots of temples. so i could not visit them all in a day.

at 3pm, it was my time to work. it turns out my jobs was to fill water bottles for the people who pray in the temple. they will get this small bottle of water to drink. so that's what i did for that day.

day 2 of volunteer

i got the night shift again, but i got another job. my job was to light up the incense and welcome all the people to the temple for 5 hours. i think we greeted more than 1000 people, so it was very tiring and an extroverted-thing to do. the thing is that the incense burn fast, so you cant really stock that many in your hand. but when a group of people are coming, i needed to quickly burn a lot of incense to avoid making queues. this is some kind of like production management stuff hahaha. but the smoke was running directly to my face and body so i smelled smoke the whole day. later in the night, my friend took me to see the drone show. it was genuinely better than the taipei 101 new year fireworks hahaha! it was so good, it lasted around 15 minutes i guess.

day 3 of volunteer

i got a job to fill out the water again, but this time in the morning until 2pm. because me and my friends had to depart for taipei around 4pm. so during the last day, it was very chill. doing the job while talking to the other volunteers. there was one volunteer who flew herself all the way from the philippines. wow. after doing our job, we went back to the dorm, packed our bags, and said goodbye to the remaning volunteers.

overall it was so nice, i got hongbaos from 法師, i met friends from different countries, different cities, i even joined and cite the prayers, i collected stamps, i got souvenirs like keychains and everything, i tried calligraphy, i tried the VR games. it was definitely a good short escape from my research that has been stressing me a lot. i was also interviewed by the 法師 for their documentation, and i had the chance to try speaking in chinese.

i might come there with a heavy heart, but i came back with a fulfilled heart. it will definitely be an experience that i will never forget.