A Taiwan-based Buddhist charity attempts to take the founding nun's message of compassion global

When a 7.4-magnitude earthquake ripped through Taiwan in April, it took about 30 minutes for the region’s most ubiquitous charity to set up an emergency response center.

Tzu Chi, an international Buddhist organization led by an 87-year-old nun, the Venerable Cheng Yen, and her followers, sprang into action. They prepared hot meals and assembled necessities for survivors and rescue teams, from drinking water to blankets, beds and tents.

The nuns reside in the Jing Si Abode in Hualien, the quake’s epicenter on the island’s east coast. It is also the spiritual home of the global organization, which is supported by millions of members across 67 countries, including the United States.

In 1966, Cheng Yen — moved by lack of access to basic health care in the beautiful yet economically underdeveloped region — started Tzu Chi, inviting local housewives to save 50 Taiwanese cents each month.

Today, the charitable foundation organizes relief operations globally. In Taiwan, it runs hospitals, a medical school and its own cable television channel. During the COVID-19 pandemic, amid a nationwide scramble to get people immunized on the island of 23 million, the foundation used its members’ influence across health care and other business sectors to buy 5 million vaccines.

Within Taiwan, Tzu Chi is known for its earthquake relief efforts. Globally, it has built a network of movers and shakers whose work ranges from disaster relief and building schools, houses of worship, homes and hospitals to refugee resettlement and feeding the hungry. The organization has had a significant presence in the U.S. since 1989 with programs in 80 locations run by paid staff and about half a million volunteers.

They ran relief operations after Sept. 11, 2001, and during Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. More recently, they supported survivors and families of a 2022 mass shooting in the predominantly Asian city of Monterey Park in Southern California. They also donated $1.5 million to relief efforts after the 2023 Maui fires in Hawaii that claimed more than 100 lives.

Stephen Huang, executive director of Tzu Chi’s global volunteers based in Southern California, became Cheng Yen’s disciple 35 years ago.

“She is an ordinary person who does extraordinary things,” he said.

The organization raises money that funds its work at home and abroad through its well-trained commissioners, who donate and fund-raise monthly. According to Tzu Chi's 2022 annual report, members raised 5.6 billion New Taiwan Dollars ($175 million), which made up 61% of its budget.

Still, the organization has not been immune to scrutiny or scandal. Public criticism over lack of transparency spurred leaders to post Tzu Chi's annual reports and financials online. The organization has also raised eyebrows for recruiting well-heeled commissioners, and for the sheer number of resources at its disposal to advance its causes.

In 2005, the organization’s attempt to develop land designated for environmental conservation in Taipei’s picturesque Neihu district was met with public outrage. Tzu Chi relented in 2015 after a decade-long administrative battle with local residents and environmentalists.

Tzu-Chi CEO Po-wen Yen came on board right after the Neihu scandal, promising more transparency. While the nonprofit is supported by wealthy benefactors, he said, most members still belong to the middle class.

The organization straddles a fine line between being an aid group and a Buddhist sect that has forged its own religious identity under Cheng Yen’s leadership.

Tzu Chi’s humanitarian aid efforts are inextricable from the faith, said Joe Hwang, the organization’s head of volunteer affairs, though it’s a departure from traditional Buddhism, which espouses a retreat from the world.

Religion, he said, is a way to guide people toward good and equip them to help others. “That’s what I think engaged Buddhism is, that we are engaged in this world.”

Tzu Chi is unique in the way it “sanctifies secular fields,” said Julia Huang, professor of anthropology at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, who traced the evolution of Tzu Chi from a grassroots initiative to global nonprofit in her book “Charisma and Compassion.”

For example, Buddhist symbols can be found in their hospitals, such as their medical center in Hualien, which has a giant mosaic of the Buddha caring for a sick monk. Cheng Yen also supports the donation of bodies to medicine, teaching devotees that human beings do not own their bodies after they die.

And yet, Tzu Chi has volunteers from all major religions. The superintendent of its hospital in Hualien is a devout Christian. The organization has funded the construction of churches in Haiti, Ecuador and Mexico, and mosques in Indonesia.

Tzu Chi is currently constructing schools and homes in Mozambique; helping with resettlement of Syrian refugees in Turkey; building Indonesia’s largest university; training Ukrainian refugees in Poland to do relief work; and constructing homes in Bodhgaya in India, the town where the Buddha attained enlightenment.

Stephen Huang says the nun even spent thousands of dollars to repair an antique Quran. He said the largest number of Tzu Chi’s projects are in China, with an emphasis on promoting vegetarianism and building schools, housing and water wells in arid regions.

In 2010, Tzu Chi became the first overseas religious nonprofit to get permission to set up an office in China, where it identifies as a charity rather than as a religious group. Julia Huang said the Chinese government requires each religion to remain loyal to the Communist Party and its policies. Tzu Chi had to rethink how they refer to sacred rituals such as tea ceremonies, and remain apolitical, she said.

While the organization has struggled to make a dent in countries where political stability is an issue such as Afghanistan, parts of South America and Nepal, it has seen success in Indonesia and Mozambique.

Franky Widjaja heads the Indonesia chapter with 2.3 million members, of whom 85% are Indonesian and Muslim. Since 1998, when he met Cheng Yen, he has been involved in disaster relief efforts and has overseen the construction of schools and hospitals in and around Jakarta. In Mozambique, Dino Foi and his wife Denise Tsai run a $70-million project to build 3,000 homes and 23 schools in the region that was ravaged by Cyclone Idai in 2019.

At the heart of Tzu Chi’s work is the belief in reincarnation, the Buddhist belief that each intentional action — good or bad — gives rise to karma, and that a person’s rebirth depends on their thoughts and actions in prior lives.

Stephen Huang said when the earthquake struck Hualien in April, members from as far away as Mexico City said they wanted to raise money to help those affected half way across the world.

“We are all connected by compassion,” Huang said. “That’s the power of love.”

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Bharath reported from Los Angeles.

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