The story of the Prince Edward Island Buddhist community is practically a piece of 21st century Island folklore.

In the mid-2000s, a Buddhist religious community, with global members from Taiwan to Singapore, set out to find a home to train devout followers in a monastic setting.

They found Kings County, P.E.I., a rural place where farming and care for the land was still woven into the social fabric.

For some locals, however, curiosity soon turned to questions. Why would a group of devout monks and nuns from halfway around the world decide to come to P.E.I.?

Today, depending on who you ask, there are two contradictory stories to tell about P.E.I.’s monastic Buddhist community.

Maybe it’s the story of an immigrant community, loosely connected by a religious group, struggling to establish itself in a rural community, often encountering more nativism than Prince Edward Islanders would like to admit.

Or maybe it’s the story of a wealthy religious group that has taken advantage of P.E.I.’s lax oversight of agricultural land protection, driving up land prices in the process.

It is clear concerns about the two main organizations of the Buddhist community – the Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute (GWBI) for Buddhist nuns and the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS) for Buddhist monks – have developed into a very real clash in Kings County.

"We felt a lot of kindness and a lot of welcome from the people that we talked to and people we meet," Venerable Joanna Ho, a member of GWBI, told The Guardian in an interview in February 2020.

"But there's this strange discrepancy with what we hear (and) then, through rumours in the media, that people seem to not want us here, not trust us."

If there was any doubt that these feelings were not significant, it was washed away in September 2020, when Three Rivers municipal councillors voted to deny a building permit for a monastic campus and dormitory for GWBI nuns in Brudenell. The campus would have provided enough housing for up to 1,400 Buddhist nuns and would have gone a long way to solving a housing crunch GWBI continues to face. In some cases, GWBI’s 470 nuns are crammed, eight to a room, in locations throughout the province, ranging from a converted farmhouse in Uigg to a former motel in Montague.

There is a debate within GWBI about whether the group should ultimately leave P.E.I. altogether.

The controversy around the Buddhist community is unique and it is not only about immigration. P.E.I. has seen immigrant communities successfully integrate in the past, including the Lebanese community.

To understand the ongoing clash, one needs to understand the internal dynamics of the Taiwanese-based religious movement that gave rise to both GWBI and GEBIS.

One also has to understand the ongoing struggles with ownership of P.E.I.’s most prized resource: farmland.

For all the controversy, the stated goal of GWBI and GEBIS is hard to argue with.

"We're a school that educates monks," Venerable Walter Tsai, who manages outreach and communications for GEBIS, told The Guardian during an interview in late January 2020.

"The mission of GEBIS is to nurture monastics.”

GEBIS runs two monasteries – one site in Heatherdale and one in Little Sands. GEBIS runs an extensive training program for male monks, based in part on the Lam Rim Chen Mo, a foundational 14th-century text of Tibetan Buddhism.

For GWBI, the goal is similar. But the organization’s focus on female postulants makes its presence unique outside of Asia.

Venerable Yvonne Tsai, a board member of GWBI and sister of Venerable Walter Tsai, said the curriculum is a rarity; there are few other options for educational programs for devout female Tibetan Buddhist nuns globally, she said.

Tsai described GWBI’s curriculum as “more like a Harvard in the Buddhist world.”

Like Ivy League institutions, it is not easy to be admitted. Before the pandemic, GWBI accepted about 10 new postulants a year. GEBIS accepted between 20 to 30 new monks per year before 2020.

Due to the denial of the Brudenell building permit, GWBI is once again turning down all new applicants.

The full curriculum of both organizations is not for the faint of heart; GWBI’s full curriculum takes 17 years to complete. For GEBIS, the curriculum can take 15 years to complete.

Venerable Yvonne estimated around 10 per cent of applicants are accepted into GWBI’s program. Applicants need to demonstrate they want to be a nun, that they want to help others, that they have family support and that they can self-reflect and think critically.

"You cannot come here because your parents told you to," Venerable Yvonne said.

It is no secret lay followers of the groups are often successful. Some are wealthy. Others, like Venerable Joanna Ho and Yvonne Tsai, grew up studying in Western countries. Most have some level of post-secondary education.

"Women that are attracted to coming to our monastery, they really like the curriculum. And generally, it's because our curriculum is very contemplative and logical," Ho said.

Both GWBI and GEBIS have plans to expand their current facilities to one day accommodate more ordained followers. But the experiences of GEBIS differ from that of GWBI.

Venerable Walter said while there are plans to expand the Heatherdale site someday, the group has enough land for its monastery at the moment. Some additional land may be needed for housing for short-term visitors. Due to the pandemic, these visits have been halted.

However, GEBIS is uncertain whether future land purchases will be blocked. Land purchases over five acres require approval by P.E.I.'s executive council under the province's Lands Protection Act.

A 2018 purchase of 20 acres of land, from a local farmer near the Heatherdale site, was rejected by the cabinet of the previous Liberal government. Members of GEBIS still do not know why.

GEBIS was granted a building permit for its ongoing construction at the Heatherdale site.

Venerable Walter said he hopes to see less division in the discussion about landholdings.

“I understand some of the concerns are legitimate, but I also found some of the questions come from misunderstanding,” Venerable Walter told The Guardian this week.

“I do believe GEBIS will benefit P.E.I., from the depth of my heart.”

Timing

Timing may not have been in favour of GWBI and GEBIS. Both groups established themselves in P.E.I. in the late 2000s and mid-2010s, a time when immigration and land ownership were controversial topics.

The Liberal government under Robert Ghiz faced several scandals related to the now-defunct entrepreneurship stream of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). PNP essentially became shorthand for political scandal.

Meanwhile, land ownership has been an ongoing controversy. The number of small family farms has been declining on P.E.I. for decades, while larger farming operations have begun consolidating more land.

Additionally, land and housing prices have spiked significantly in recent years.

Three Rivers Mayor Ed MacAulay said all of this has brought about heightened sensitivity about home and land purchases. Many Kings County residents think of their children who have left for work or school.

“I think the fear is that if the jobs come and the careers come, then maybe the kids will come back,” MacAulay said, referring to anxieties he comes across from others in rural parts of Kings County.

MacAulay said some people fear that children who have returned during the pandemic may not be able to afford to buy a house in Kings County.

For several years, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has been one group that has suggested the two Buddhist groups were circumventing the province’s Lands Protection Act, often comparing them with agricultural corporations like Cavendish Farms.

The Lands Protection Act (LPA), which limits corporate landowners to 3,000 acres of land, is a highly venerated piece of legislation designed to limit the land holdings of both large corporations and non-residents.

Islanders often believe corporations have circumvented the land size limits of the LPA, simply by purchasing farmland using different shell corporations. NFU district director Doug Campbell believes GEBIS and GWBI fall into this pattern.

"Call it whatever you want to call it — a corporation, a religion,” Campbell told The Guardian in November. “It comes down to following the spirit and the intention of the act. And if they're in violation of it then why would they be any different than the Irvings being in violation?"

Dalhousie researcher Jason Ellsworth, who has been studying both GWBI and GEBIS for years, says the controversies about the group are a reflection of ongoing local concerns. And few laws are as fiercely protected as the LPA.

"A lot of the social context of the people on P.E.I. are coming out — those that are protecting organics, those who want to protect farmland, those who want to fight the monopolies,” Ellsworth said.

“It tells us a lot about what's going on on the Island."

The Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC) completed an investigation of the landholdings of GEBIS and GWBI in 2018, but the findings were never made public. Based on a publicly searchable database of land purchases, GWBI owns 667 acres of land while GEBIS owns 584 acres.

Why P.E.I.?

One reason for GEBIS and GWBI setting up monasteries in P.E.I. is simple: religious freedom in Canada.

Both GEBIS and GWBI grew out of Fuzhi, also known as Bliss and Wisdom. Bliss and Wisdom claims to have 60,000 followers worldwide, including 2,000 monks and nuns. It is considered to be one of six major “socially engaged” Buddhist organizations in Taiwan. Founded in 1987 by Venerable Jih-Chang, a disciple of the Dalai Lama, the organization took an active role in educational endeavours and social causes, including the promotion of organic agriculture.

Before Jih-Chang’s passing in 2004, he surprised many by appointing a young woman, a lay follower from Mainland China, as the spiritual leader of Bliss and Wisdom. She is known internationally as Master Zhen-Ru or Mary Jin, and currently lives in P.E.I.

Past media stories have reported that after the passing of Master Jih-Chang, Master Zhen-Ru travelled the world in search of a place to establish a monastic school. Singapore was considered for a time.

“She saw Canada as a place that’s open to diversity and religious freedom,” Venerable Dan, a monk from GEBIS, told P.E.I. reporter Lindsay Kyte in a 2018 story in Lion’s Roar magazine.

Another reason involved a desire to have Zhen-Ru close to training centres for devout monks and nuns.

A section of Bliss and Wisdom’s website states that, prior to his passing, Master Jih-Chang had instructed that monastics be under the “personal tutelage” of Master Zhen-Ru. But as Zhen-Ru was a Chinese national, travel to Taiwan was not simple.

“Even though legislation has loosened recently, it is however still very difficult for a Chinese national to stay in Taiwan for an extended period of time,” the website posting, from 2017, says.

Other concerns may have been a factor. Human rights groups have reported that Tibetan Buddhist organizations have faced restrictions on their movement and religious freedom in Mainland China.

GEBIS was first established in British Columbia as a charity in 2006. Another organization was later established in Toronto. But ultimately Prince Edward Island was chosen. GWBI’s website states that Zhen-Ru enjoyed the “serenity” of P.E.I., a place far removed from “bustling cities.”

P.E.I. may have offered something else: peace and quiet.

"She doesn't want to be famous," Tsai said in an interview in January 2020.

"She told us that her dream for this life is to live in a cave and just meditate all the time."

Zhen-Ru is very likely the only leader of a global religious movement to live on P.E.I.

An economic gift horse?

In the ongoing controversy around landholdings and the motivations of GEBIS and GWBI, what is often lost is a legitimate argument that the presence of these organizations could benefit P.E.I.

One significant focus of lay followers has been the promotion of organic agriculture. The founder of Bliss and Wisdom, Master Jih-Chang, helped establish several social enterprises geared towards promoting organics, including the Tse-Xin Organic Agricultural Foundation in Taiwan, which provides an organic accreditation testing system in Taiwan. As of 2010, there were 433 farms in Taiwan that had obtained this accreditation.

Lay followers in Taiwan have since also established Leezen grocery store chains across Taiwan, providing a significant market for organic goods. This social enterprise is not directly owned by Bliss and Wisdom but is operated in line with Buddhist beliefs. There are about 130 such stores in Taiwan and 29 worldwide.

A similar business run by a lay follower of GEBIS in P.E.I. is Grain Essence Incorporated, which owns the local Leezen grocery store on University Avenue in Charlottetown.

Ellsworth says the group purchases Island-grown organic soybeans from local farmers and ships them to Taiwan to produce soy milk.

Ellsworth, who travelled to Taiwan and met with the president of Leezen, said the stores overseas often proudly display Canadian and P.E.I.-produced goods, including soy products, cranberries, Canadian flags and blueberry jam.

"They're of course proud that it comes from P.E.I.,” Ellsworth said.

“P.E.I. is presented as this pristine landscape where organic produce is being created … but also because where the food comes from is somewhat geographically close to their current leader.”

GWBI and GEBIS have also offered significant purchasing support for organic growers in P.E.I.

"They were our biggest organic customers last year,” Brian MacKay of Crystal Green Farms told The Guardian in November.

“They don't want a whole lot of noise and flack for the things they do. But they are supporting a little more than maybe they're getting credit for."

“I know there's some concern around the acreage they're getting to own. But if we don't accept a nunnery, I'm not sure just what would be good enough for us,” he added.

The interest in P.E.I. from Bliss and Wisdom’s Taiwanese followers has also been a boon to P.E.I.’s tourism market.

Between 2013 and 2018, overnight visitors from Taiwan jumped from 58 to 3,065 according to Tourism P.E.I. These visitors pumped at least $2.25 million into the local economy. This increase is very likely linked to the GEBIS and GWBI communities.

Ellsworth’s research shows that GEBIS has been donating significant amounts of locally grown food to food banks on the Island since at least 2015. A quick perusal of the group's About Monks Facebook page demonstrates that this has continued throughout the fall and winter.

Overall, the questions surrounding the landholdings of both GWBI and GEBIS will likely persist in the future. But so too will claims from the groups’ leaders that they hope to be a net positive for the Island.

Venerable Yvonne, who has lived on P.E.I. for more than a decade, told The Guardian: “People ask us 'what's your endgame?'

"I just want to make the Island home."

Stu Neatby is The Guardian's political reporter.

Twitter.com/stu_neatby