At the same location there used to be a smaller bamboo house, built in 1996 for the thirtieth anniversary of the Tzu Chi Foundation. That house was originally meant to be torn down after the anniversary, but it was such a suitable and relaxing spot for drinking tea or telling stories that it was kept for three more years. Gradually time took its toll. Bugs ate into the bamboo and rendered it useless. Three years later it was dismantled to make way for the new bamboo bungalow, which will be a lasting piece of art that will preserve old traditions. It is a piece of art not only because of its beautiful appearance, but also because of the effort put into building it.

Hung Wu-cheng, a Tzu Chi volunteer, was in charge of the design and construction. In order to create a bamboo bungalow manifesting a special genre combining traditional Taiwanese, mainland Chinese and Japanese architecture, Hung and his wife visited different regions in these areas for half a year. In addition, they paid visits to over one hundred architects capable of constructing bamboo houses. But these visits often ended in disappointment, as the architects were either dead, frail, or unable to come and help. Finally they found three architects. Construction started on August 20, 1999, and finished one year and two months later. Over 6,500 volunteers from all over the world came to help. The total area of the Still Thoughts Bamboo Bungalow, including the garden, is 2,650 square meters [28,620 sq ft]; the bungalow itself covers 630 square meters [6,804 sq ft].

The building has three parts, the main hall in the middle and two rooms on either side. A winding corridor, which is paved with guide bricks for the blind, connects the three parts. The garden around the bungalow has a creek, a pond, an arched bridge, and a gushing fountain. The simple structure contains no paintings or carvings. What it does have are bamboo traceries with designs of various flowers and walls made up of 130 bamboo blinds. The hollow walls give the house a see-through feeling. Sitting inside the bungalow, one can easily become intoxicated by the soothing scent of bamboo, the enchanting sound of running water, and the lovely scenes of trees and sky. Visitors to the bungalow will feel that they are at one with nature.

As the name implies, the bungalow is constructed of bamboo. Bamboo is an environmentally friendly construction material. Compared with other woods, its shorter life span means it is mature and ready for use in a mere five years, making it a highly renewable resource. Its long, intertwining roots are efficient at holding the soil together. Taiwan, in fact, produces the best bamboo in the world. For the construction of the Bamboo Bungalow, a total of 9,968 pieces of bamboo weighing eighty thousand kilograms [88 tons], were used.

Altogether four kinds of bamboo were used, the most uncommon one being the square bamboo (Chimonobambusa quadrangularis), which is very valuable for its shape. It was the first time this kind of bamboo had ever been used for structural posts, although the techniques used were still entirely traditional.

Growing square bamboo is both an art form and a matter of luck. When growing square bamboo sprouts, farmers place a square mold around strong-looking shoots to alter their shape. If it happens to rain continually for seven or eight days, the farmers apply organic fertilizer daily. Sometimes a sprout can shoot up over 124 centimeters [49.6 in] overnight. Immediately after a week of rain, the weather has to be cloudy or drizzly for two more days for the sprouts to survive. If the weather immediately turns sunny after the rain, the fertilizer will ferment and heat up and the sprout will rot. Adding all these uncertainties together, the sprouts only stand a one-in-four chance of surviving.

Volunteers whittled more than fifty thousand bamboo wedges. Some thought of using bamboo chopsticks as nails and using pencil sharpeners to do the work. However they failed, for bamboo must be cut according to its growth pattern to make one side thicker than the other, so that when the wedge is pushed in it stays tight and does not break.

Every item in the bungalow is the result of months of hard work. At the entrance, right behind the threshold, is a stepping-stone made of Chingtou stone from Liukui Creek in Kaohsiung County, southern Taiwan. The stone is engraved with plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemum and lotus flowers, which are all favorite plants of ancient as well as modern Chinese writers. The stone was soaked in tea and rubbed with tea leaves for a hundred days, coloring the stone copper brown.

The floor tiles in the bungalow were made in an old kiln in southern Taiwan. The tiles were first smoldered dry with burning chaff and rice husks, then later fired in the kiln. The whole process took 190 days. The time devoted ensured high quality. Hung said that even after decades the tiles will not wear out, but instead will shine brightly with the passing of time. Moreover, their earthy look will cool down the summer heat and warm up the winter chill.

The shape of the tiles has cultural meaning. Diamond-shaped floor tiles indicate a welcome to visitors, whereas square tiles do not carry that message. That is why one finds diamond-shaped tiles in the reception rooms of traditionally built Chinese houses. Tiles used in bedrooms are square since it is regarded as inappropriate and impolite to greet distinguished visitors in the bedroom. All rooms in the Bamboo Bungalow have diamond-shaped tiles.

Stepping out of the bungalow, one finds water streaming out from a gushing fountain. The water flows along a little stream and down four levels of a lotus pond, from which it is pumped back to the gushing fountain. The continuous circulation of clean water symbolizes the constant performance of good deeds by all Tzu Chi people in this world. The water is filtered all day long to maintain its cleanliness and transparency. The water is so clean that it often tempts children and adults alike to take off their shoes and soak their feet in the water to enjoy its coolness.

The Bamboo Bungalow intends to preserve not only traditional architecture, but also artifacts from the past. Tzu Chi volunteers searched in many places for old electricity poles, lines, connectors and lamps used in the forties. The obsolete electricity poles were placed outside the bungalow and the lamps hung inside it. Hung said all the efforts were worthwhile to preserve a record for Taiwan's future generations.

This architecture is special not only because of its design, but also because of the work put in by the volunteers. During the roughly one year it took to build, 6,500 volunteers from different parts of the world dedicated their services. Every step in building the bungalow called for much labor and selfless devotion. Take the refinement of the bamboo as an example. Before it can actually be used, the bamboo must be treated with a process that includes washing, sun-drying, cooking, injecting preservatives, painting with seven layers of special paints and finally polishing. Each part of the process takes backbreaking labor. After washing the bamboos for quite a while, some volunteers' hands started trembling as if they had had a stroke. A volunteer in her sixties exclaimed that every night she had to raise her hands up high, otherwise she would feel a drilling pain as if screwdrivers were driving into her bones.

Gathering seven hundred pieces of thorny bamboo (Chimonobambusa pachystachys) was another story of hard labor. Thorny bamboo, used for posts and beams in the bungalow, can weigh over sixty kilograms [132 lb] and measure around four stories high. Some of this bamboo grew at the bottom of a ravine, inaccessible for trucks, so volunteers had to drag it up the banks of the ravine. Collecting the thorny bamboo took four days of solid work.

Such tough work was not all left to men-women helped as well. When a Tzu Chi sister heard that a lot of thorny bamboo would be needed, she not only pointed out where to find it, but also personally negotiated with the landowner. The bamboo was located on a mountain eleven hundred meters [3,300 ft] above sea level. Since trucks could not reach the site, she and four other Tzu Chi sisters did all the work manually. They chopped down the bamboo and then dragged or carried it a great distance to a place where the trucks could collect it. The laborious task completely drained their energy. But they did not give up. After wiping their tears, they resumed their work. In order to commemorate their efforts, a beam which had been scratched as the volunteers dragged it over stones and up a cliff wall, was put above the front door of the bamboo bungalow.

The hard work, which went on for over a year, made the Still Thoughts Bamboo Bungalow possible. During all this time, Tzu Chi people in Hualien brought the volunteers snacks twice a day. The contributions of the 6,500 volunteers and loving care from others made the construction of this bungalow an unprecedented project.