Longshan Temple Audio Guide

Lungshan Temple: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Lungshan Temple

   Welcome to Lungshan Temple, known locally as 艋舺龍山寺, standing at the corner of Guangzhou Street and Xiyuan Road in Taipei's Wanhua District. This is the old heart of the city. Wanhua was once called Bangka, and it is where Taipei's story began. The temple sits right beside the lively Huaxi Street night market, so expect incense smoke, chanting, shopkeepers and the murmur of conversation all around you. The temple is dedicated to Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of compassion. It was founded in 1738 by settlers from the Quanzhou region of Fujian across the sea. For nearly three centuries it has been a place of prayer, and also a meeting hall, a courthouse and a rallying point for the neighborhood. Today it is a national monument, and it still hums with daily worship. Over the next few stops we will follow its story from a riverside settlement to a wartime survivor. We will look closely at its craftsmanship, and then at the crowd of gods who share the halls with Guanyin. Take a breath of incense, find a spot in the courtyard, and let us begin.

2. 02

   Lungshan Temple and the Birth of Bangka

   To understand Lungshan Temple, picture the riverbank around it in the early eighteenth century. In 1709 a land-reclamation enterprise called Chen Laizhang received permission to open up the Taipei basin. Settlers from Jinjiang, Nan'an and Hui'an in Quanzhou, known together as the Three Districts, crossed the sea and gradually formed a community. Local Pingpu people paddled down the Tamsui River in dugout canoes loaded with sweet potatoes to trade with them, and the place was nicknamed the Sweet Potato Market. The Pingpu word for a canoe sounded like Banka, and the Chinese settlers wrote it down as Bangka. That is the old name of Wanhua. The journey was dangerous, and northern Taiwan was feared as a harsh, disease-ridden frontier. So settlers often carried incense from their home temples for protection. The Three Districts people brought a branch of the Guanyin from Longshan Temple in Anhai, Jinjiang, and a temple went up here. The merchant Huang Dianmo is remembered as the one who launched the project. Construction began in the fifth month of 1738, and the temple was finished in the second month of 1740. Two stories explain why the temple stands on this exact spot. One says a rattan merchant from Quanzhou left an incense bag from the Jinjiang Longshan Temple hanging on a bamboo branch, and people took it as a sign. Another says an incense bag left on a big banyan tree glowed in the night. Whichever you prefer, both tell of a small bag of incense becoming a great temple.

3. 03

   Lungshan Temple: Courthouse, Fortress and Survivor

   In the Qing period, Lungshan Temple was far more than a place of worship. It was the center of faith, self-government and self-defense for Bangka. Disputes, lawsuits and mediation could all be brought before the deity for a just ruling. The Three Districts merchants' guild, called the Quanjiao, used it as its base. Local tradition adds darker chapters of feuds between settler communities, and tells of a pregnant woman washing clothes in the temple pond who raised the alarm about an attack and was killed. She is honored as the Lady of the Pool Head and is worshipped beside the goddess who protects childbirth. The building itself endured many trials. It was repaired after the great earthquake of 1815 and again after a storm in 1867. In 1919 termites had eaten into its beams, and the abbot, Master Fuzhi, led the campaign to rebuild, donating his own savings first. Under Japanese rule parts of the temple served as a school, barracks and offices, and Guangzhou Street was cut through in 1919, turning the pond in front into a fountain. The most moving chapter came in 1945. Air raids destroyed the central hall, yet the statue of Guanyin sat unharmed on her lotus throne. Residents had often sheltered beneath that lotus seat, but on the eve of the raid they went home, driven off by fierce mosquitoes. So when the hall was destroyed, no one was inside. Neighbors took it as the Bodhisattva's protection, and her place in the community's heart grew deeper still.

4. 04

   Lungshan Temple: A Gallery of Master Craftsmanship

   Now look up, and around you. The temple you see largely dates from the rebuilding that began in 1919, when master craftsmen were brought from Quanzhou. The carpenter Wang Yishun, the stonemason Xin Ajiu and the clay-sculpture and mosaic master Hong Kunfu all left their mark here. The layout forms a complete square ring, a dignified plan for a traditional temple. In the front hall, find the eight-sided ceiling and the bronze-cast dragon pillars, which are one of a kind in Taiwan and were made in 1918. In the main hall, four golden pillars frame a spiral ceiling 5.82 meters across, made of 32 sets of interlocking bracket arms. It was first made by Wang Yishun, and when the hall was rebuilt after 1945 the arrangement was changed to turn counterclockwise. The bell and drum towers on either side have double-eaved roofs shaped like a sedan chair, a first in Taiwan, and they influenced temples elsewhere. Smaller details reward curious eyes. The stone window beside the main gate carves scenes from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and on the other side a bamboo-shaped window means safety and peace. Some courtyard paving stones were said to be ballast carried by migrants' ships across the stormy Taiwan Strait, once nicknamed the Black Water Ditch. Look, too, for the carved figures of foreigners holding up the temple's corners. Inside the main hall stands a 1.11 meter standing Shakyamuni, made in 1925 by Huang Tushui, Taiwan's first modern sculptor and a native of Bangka. It was burned in the war, and a replica was cast from the original mold.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Here is a delightful puzzle to carry with you. Lungshan Temple is officially registered as Buddhist, yet Guanyin shares her home with Taoist deities and popular gods. In the main hall, Guanyin is joined by Manjushri, Samantabhadra, Skanda and the 18 arhats. The rear halls shelter Mazu, the god of literature, the deified Guan Yu, Hua Tuo the physician, the matchmaker Old Man under the Moon, and many more. Some say it is a gathering place of the gods, with over a hundred main and attendant deities. If you visit at the right time of year, you might catch the lantern exhibition in the first lunar month, the Buddha-bathing festival in the fourth month, or the Ullambana assembly in the seventh month. The Zhongyuan rituals are recognized as intangible cultural heritage. On your way out, watch the elders chatting in the courtyard and listen to the street beyond the gate. Then ask yourself which of these sounds belong to the Bangka of 1740, and which are new. The Longshan Temple MRT station is only a short walk from here, so the temple is easy to revisit. Come back at a different hour, and you may notice a different temple.