Hsin Ting (; born February 2, 1944) is a Buddhist monk from
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
who served as the sixth-term
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...
and director of
Fo Guang Shan
Fo Guang Shan (FGS) () is an international Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhist organization and monastic order based in Taiwan that practices Humanistic Buddhism. The headquarters, Fo Guang Shan Monastery is located in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, and ...
from 1997 to 2005. He served as acting abbot for three years after the sudden death of his predecessor,
Hsin Ping
Hsin Ping () (30 June 1938 - 7 April 1995) was the fourth and fifth abbot of Fo Guang Shan and the dharma heir to Hsing Yun, founder of Fo Guang Shan.
Venerable Hsin Ping entered the Buddhist sangha in 1963. Hsin Ping went on to receive the pre ...
, in 1995. From 2004 to 2010, Hsin Ting served as the president of
Buddha's Light International Association
The Buddha's Light International Association (), commonly known as BLIA, is a monastic and lay organization. BLIA was established by Hsing Yun in 1992. The organization is associated with Fo Guang Shan, the largest Buddhist organization in Taiwan. ...
. In his post-abbotship years, Hsin Ting was appointed the abbot of Tai Hua Temple in Bangkok, Thailand, assisting in overseeing the construction project for Fo Guang Shan's satellite branch temple in South East Asia.
Biography
Hsin Ting was born in
Yunlin County
Yunlin County ( Mandarin pinyin: ''Yúnlín Xiàn''; Taigi POJ: ''Hûn-lîm-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Yùn-lìm-yen'') is a county in western Taiwan. Yunlin County borders the Taiwan Strait to the west, Nantou County to the east, Changhua County ...
. He was born into a family of farmers and grew up in the country. In 1968, he became a monastic under Master Hsing Yun and took full ordination the following year in
Keelung. Hsin Ting graduated from the Eastern Buddhist College and the India Research Institute of the Chinese Cultural University. He further received an honorary doctorate degree from the Fo Guang Shan-affiliated
University of the West
University of the West (UWest) is a private, non-sectarian, Buddhist-affiliated university in Rosemead, California. It was founded in 1990 by Hsing Yun, founder of the Taiwan-based Buddhist order Fo Guang Shan and Hsi Lai Temple, the North Amer ...
in
Rosemead, California
Rosemead is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2021 census, it had a population of 50,245, currently dropping. Rosemead is part of a cluster of cities, along with Alhambra, Arcadia, Temple City, Monterey Park ...
in 1998.
Prior to his abbotship, Hsin Ting held a variety of high posts, such as the secretary of Fo Guang Shan's Religious Affairs Committee, Managing Director of the Ilan Buddhist Society, President of the American Buddhist Youth Association, Vice President and later President of the BLIA chapter in Taiwan. He also served as abbot at Long Hua Temple in Malaysia,
Hsi Lai Temple in California, Pu Men Temple in Taipei, and Pu Hsien Temple in Kaohsiung. Outside of Fo Guang Shan, Hsin Ting serves as a board member at the Humpty Dumpty Institute in New York City and as vice chair of the board of trustees at University of the West.
Upon the sudden death of Hsing Yun's eldest disciple and abbot, Venerable
Hsin Ping
Hsin Ping () (30 June 1938 - 7 April 1995) was the fourth and fifth abbot of Fo Guang Shan and the dharma heir to Hsing Yun, founder of Fo Guang Shan.
Venerable Hsin Ping entered the Buddhist sangha in 1963. Hsin Ping went on to receive the pre ...
, Hsin Ting was immediately promoted to the said position, and served the rest of Hsin Ping's term until 1997, when he was unanimously elected abbot that same year. His term as abbot ended in 2005 when Venerable
Hsin Pei
Hsin Pei (; born March 13, 1970) was the seventh and eighth term abbot and director of the Fo Guang Shan, an international Chinese Buddhist
Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a ...
was elected to succeed him. Along with Master Hsing Yun, he regularly gives dharma lectures and presides over Buddhist ceremonies on behalf of Hsing Yun. To accommodate his visits to the United States, Hsin Ting became a
United States citizen
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...
in 2010.
In 2011, Hsin Ting launched a personal
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page as well as a
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
channel for the purposes of reaching out to younger Buddhists.
References
External links
Ven. Hsin Ting's Facebook*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hsin, Ting
1944 births
Living people
Fo Guang Shan Buddhists
People from Yunlin County
Taiwanese Buddhist monks
Taiwanese religious leaders
Taiwanese Zen Buddhists
Rinzai Buddhists