Chinese Temples of Barrio Chino, Belgrano, Buenos Aires布宜诺斯艾利斯贝尔格拉诺唐人街华人寺院

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Argentina · Autonomous City of Buenos Aires · Buenos Aires · The Chinatown of the Belgrano district; the Templo Tzong Kuan at 2175 Montañeses

First built

Zhongguan Temple, 1988; Fo Guang Shan, 1992 · The Chinatown took shape mainly in the 1980s, when immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Guangdong settled there

Overview

The Chinatown of Buenos Aires lies in the Belgrano district, extending some five blocks by two, and took shape mainly in the 1980s when immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the coastal provinces of southern China settled there; it is the cultural centre of Argentina’s Chinese community. The district contains two Chinese temples: the Templo Tzong Kuan, founded in 1988 at 2175 Montañeses Street, with about five hundred adherents; and the Fo Guang Shan Argentina temple, established in 1992, which offers courses in meditation, martial arts, yoga and vegetarian cooking. Their character must be stated honestly: both are Buddhist temples, not Daoist ones. The religious life of Argentines of Chinese descent (about 350,000 by ancestry in 2023, of whom more than 52,000 were born in China) consists chiefly of Catholicism and Chinese popular religion side by side, and no independent Daoist temple has been found. Chinese immigration to Argentina came in four waves: immigrants to coastal towns between 1914 and 1949, immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong and southern China in the 1980s, immigrants from Fujian in the 1990s, and professionals in recent years.

Highlights

• Templo Tzong Kuan, founded in 1988, with about five hundred adherents
• Fo Guang Shan Argentina temple, established in 1992
• Both are Buddhist temples, not Daoist ones
• The Chinatown took shape mainly in the 1980s
• About 350,000 people of Chinese descent in Argentina