Suijing Bo Temple, Boise博伊西绥靖伯庙（已不存）

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

United States · Idaho · Boise · South side of Idaho Street, between Seventh and Eighth Streets.

First built

Built around the 1880s.

Overview

The Suijing Bo Temple in Boise was built around the 1880s as a simple timber-frame structure, dedicated principally to Suijing Bo (Chen Zhongzhen), a local protector deity and plague-warding god particular to Taishan-descended immigrants. The temple's existence shows that the cult of Suijing Bo also existed in the form of an independent temple in the interior Northwest of the United States during the nineteenth century, and was not confined to the shrines of the Chan, Woo and Yuen family associations. The temple no longer stands; interior photographs were published in period magazines, with copies preserved at the Idaho Historical Society, showing the arrangement of curtains, banners and complete sets of ritual vessels. CINARC notes that Chinese temples in the interior Northwest during the 1860s to 1880s were mostly built with funds raised by the entire immigrant community, whereas after 1900 temple-building shifted mainly to secret societies and family associations; Boise happens to preserve examples of both phases of this transition.

Highlights

• Built around the 1880s, dedicated principally to Suijing Bo, a local deity of Taishan
• Proves that the cult of Suijing Bo once existed as an independent temple
• Interior photographs are preserved at the Idaho Historical Society