[1] Syuentzang Temple was built in 1965 by the Nantou County Government in honor of Hsüan-tsang (also romanized as Syuentzang or Xuanzang) (602–664), a prominent Buddhist monk who made a seventeen-year overland journey to India during the Tang dynasty (618–907) in the seventh century.

It sits on a hill named "Cinglong" (靑龍山) near the Sun Moon Lake, the largest body of water in Taiwan.

[1] During the Sino-Japanese War, while the occupying Japanese Imperial Army was digging to establish a Shintoist shrine in Nanjing, unearthed there were the head bones of Xuanzang, which were confirmed by the Chinese and Japanese scholars jointly that had been transferred in 1027 from Changan to this place.

For "safety from the deteriorating situation of China", they were moved to Ji-on Temple (慈恩寺), Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

In 1955, the Government of Japan returned the Śarīra (Buddhist relics) of Hsüantsang back to the Government of the Republic of China, which itself was "plundered war booty" from Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War.