Hsinchu Changhe Temple Audio Guide

Changhe Temple: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Hsinchu Changhe Temple

   You are on Beimen Street, in the North District of Hsinchu, standing at a temple that locals have long called the Outer Mazu Temple. Its local name is 新竹長和宮, and it is one of the busiest temples on this street. It sits at number 135 Beimen Street, and it is a municipally designated monument. The nickname comes from the map. The temple stood outside the north gate of the old walled town, which was then called Zhuqian. When a second Mazu temple went up inside the walls, this one became the outer one. The temple faces the street and the old gate exit, with the road to the former harbor running north. In its day this was the doorway for goods moving between Hsinchu and the Chinese mainland. Together with Zhulian Temple and the City God Temple, it forms the trio known as Hsinchu's three great temples. Over the next few minutes we will look at a merchants' guild, a soft-bodied goddess statue with a hair legend, a rare pair of side-by-side temples, and a painter whose family brush still decorates the walls.

2. 02

   Hsinchu Changhe Temple and the Harbor Merchants

   To understand this temple, picture Zhuqian in the eighteenth century. Trade across the strait ran through the harbor just outside the north gate, and boats came and went constantly. The shipping merchants formed a guild, the Water Trade Guild, and crossing that stretch of sea was dangerous. So they invited a Mazu statue from the mother temple on Meizhou Island to sail with them and protect them. The temple was founded in 1742, in the reign of the Qianlong emperor. The name Changhe means lasting harmony. It was chosen so the shipping houses would cooperate for the long term and live in peace with one another. One account says local officials, including the Tamsui sub-prefect and the garrison commander, proposed the temple, and that the family of Wang Shijie donated the land. Another says that in 1819 the wholesale traders of the water guild, led by Guo Shangan, Wu Jianbang and six others, rallied to fund the temple. Once the city built its own Mazu temple inside the walls in 1748, this one became known as the Outer Mazu. It was also where the shop owners and shippers met to do business, and it is regarded as the most important Mazu worship center in the Hsinchu area.

3. 03

   The Soft-Bodied Mazu of Hsinchu Changhe Temple

   The main deity here is a Mazu statue known as the Zhengsan Ma of the Meizhou ancestral temple. It is a soft-bodied statue, meaning it can be dressed in real clothing. It was brought from Meizhou in 1742 together with its sedan chair, phoenix crown, embroidered robes, tiny lotus shoes and embroidered purse. This is also said to be the earliest Mazu in the Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli region. Here is the legend. Tradition holds that the hair on this statue is a real strand left behind by Mazu herself. After she ascended, a lock of her hair was kept at the ancestral temple and divided into three, one for each of three soft-bodied statues. The eldest was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The second was taken to Southeast Asia and its whereabouts are unknown. The third is here in Hsinchu, said to be the only statue in the world that carries a relic of Mazu. The goddess has lived a busy life. Before major ceremonies the temple closes its doors so her robes can be arranged and her hair combed. On her birthday, the twenty-third day of the third lunar month, devotees take part in a ritual called walking the barrier, praying for safety.

4. 04

   Twin Temples and Painted Doors at Hsinchu Changhe Temple

   Look at the complex as a whole. Hsinchu Changhe Temple stands beside Shuixian Temple, and the two run in parallel as a main temple and a secondary one. This is a rare layout in Taiwan. The Shuixian temple was added in 1863, because Hsinchu had grown into the center of northern Taiwan and the incense was so busy that one more sea deity was needed. It honors the Water Immortal, another protector of sailors. The old rear hall of Changhe then became Zhuan Temple, dedicated to Guanyin. The two temples were built at different times, but their layouts are similar, and they likely came from the same line of craftsmen. Changhe itself has three halls, with courtyards between the first and second. The front prayer hall has a rolled roof and lions stacked on bracket sets, and a stone slab is set into the floor along the central axis. The paintings are the star. They were done by Pan Yuexiong, son of the master painter Pan Lishui, using a traditional method in which wood is coated with plaster, covered with hemp cloth, plastered again and sealed with tung oil before painting. The door gods Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong greet you, and the beams are full of historical figures, flowers and birds. A major restoration was completed in 2001.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you leave, turn back toward Beimen Street and think of the old north gate and the harbor beyond it. A temple that started as a promise of safe passage and lasting harmony between rival shipping houses is still the center of devotion here. There is more to notice. Behind the temple, a pilgrims' building houses a small history hall with old inscriptions, ritual objects, the goddess's sedan chair and her embroidered garments. The temple has even taken part in modern stories, such as the Mazu statue carried into the Diaoyu Islands activism of the 1990s, which came back to Changhe in 2001. As you walk out, check the painted doors, the paired roof lines of the two temples, and how the lanes around them still feel like a market street. Which detail will you remember first?