DATE: REBUILT IN 1786 A.D.

LOCATION: LUNGSHAN WARD, LUKANG

DESCRIPTION:

The Lungshan Temple at Lukang was originally founded by the Buddhist master Chao-shan in Yung-li 7 (1653), in the Ming dynasty. In Yung-li 15 (1661), however, it was rebuilt in brick as the earliest Buddhist temple in the history of Taiwan. It was relocated to its present site in Chien-lung 51 (1786), in the Ching dynasty, at the suggestion of Chen Pang-kuang, a Chuanchow official. Its architecture is in the Northern Sung dynasty palace style, characterized by a sequence of four principal buildings and three inner courtyards, with open courtyards in front of the main entrance gate and posterior hall. Once nicknamed "Taiwan's Forbidden City", it is one of the three most famous old temples in Taiwan. In the Chia-ching period (1796-1820) of the Ching dynasty, it was affiliated to the Kaiyuan Temple at Chuanchow, Fukien, but during the Japanese occupation period it was redesignated as an offshoot of the Penyuan Temple. The Lungshan Temple is principally dedicated to the cult of the Bodhisattva Kuan-yin, but the right and left altars are dedicated respectively to Ching Chu Kung, a local land god, and Chu Sheng Niang Niang, a folk deity who presides over the birth of sons. The roof ridge of the main hall is rather simply decorated with a pair of dragons performing obeisance to a pagoda. Other roof ridges are unadorned, and the temple's simple, unpretentious structure is typical of temple architecture of Fukien and Kwangtung.