Hau Wong Temple, Kowloon City九龙城侯王古庙

Type

Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)

Location

Hong Kong, China · Hong Kong · Wong Tai Sin District, Kowloon · At the junction of Junction Road and Tung Tau Tsuen Road, on the west side of Kowloon Walled City Park; commonly known as the 'Kowloon City Hau Wong Temple,' administratively located in Wong Tai Sin District

Coordinates

22.3327, 114.1875 Map ↗

First built

c. 1730 (8th year of the Yongzheng reign of Qing) or earlier · Dated by the temple's bronze bell from the eighth year of the Yongzheng era; another account holds that a small shrine already existed from the end of the Southern Song into the early Yuan, though there is no physical evidence for this. It has been managed by the Chinese Temples Committee since 1928

Heritage status

Hong Kong Declared Monument (2014)

Overview

The Hau Wong Temple in Kowloon City stands to the west of Kowloon Walled City. According to a bronze bell within the temple dated to the eighth year of the Yongzheng era (1730), it was built at that time or earlier, making it one of the earliest Hong Kong temples with a firmly datable inscription. It is dedicated primarily to Yeung Hau Tai Wong (Great Lord Yang Hou), whose identity is disputed; the most widely accepted account holds him to be Yang Liangjie, the uncle by marriage of the Song emperor who fled south with Emperor Bing at the end of the Southern Song. The temple stands on a stone-built high platform, with a freestanding incense pavilion with a hip-and-gable roof in front, and the gable of the rear hall employs the "Five Marchmounts Facing Heaven" style rarely found in Hong Kong. The temple preserves an incense burner donated in 1847 by Xu Wenshen, the first Kowloon Inspector; behind the temple stands a large stone inscription of the single character "he" (crane), carved in one continuous stroke by Zhang Shouren in 1888, a well-known inscription in Kowloon City. Management passed to the Chinese Temples Committee from 1928; a restoration costing about four million Hong Kong dollars was completed in 2005, and the temple reopened the following year. It was declared a Hong Kong Declared Monument on 24 October 2014.

Highlights

• The bronze bell from the eighth year of the Yongzheng era
• The incense burner donated by Xu Wenshen in 1847
• The single-stroke stone inscription of the character 'he' (crane) from 1888
• The 'Five Marchmounts Facing Heaven' style gable