Man Mo Temple, Sheung Wan东华三院文武庙（上环）

Type: Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
Location: Hong Kong, China · Hong Kong · Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island · 124–126 Hollywood Road; the monument complex comprises three buildings at 124–126, 128, and 130 (the Man Mo Temple, the Lit Shing Kung, and the public hall)
Coordinates: 22.284, 114.1502 Map ↗
First built: Completed c. 1847–1862 · Funded and organized by Chinese merchants Lu Yagui, Tan Yacai, and others; official documents give a range of years, though popular accounts often cite 1847 alone; management passed to the Tung Wah Hospital following the Man Mo Temple Ordinance of 1908
Heritage status: Hong Kong Declared Monument (2010)Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory: 'Autumn Rites at the Man Mo Temple' (2014)

Overview

The Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan was completed around 1847–1862, funded and organized by Chinese merchants Lu Yagui, Tan Yacai, and others, and is dedicated primarily to Wenchang Dijun and Guan Shengdijun (the "Two Emperors of Letters and Arms"). In the early colonial period, the Hong Kong government recognized the practice, conducted here, of "beheading a chicken and burning yellow paper" as a form of oath-taking to arbitrate disputes among the Chinese population; the "public hall" (gongsuo) within the temple complex served as a place for deliberation and mediation, so the Man Mo Temple combined quasi-judicial functions with community governance. In 1851 the pork trade guild donated a pair of stone lions; from 1880 the adjoining Chinese College (Zhonghua Shuyuan) offered free schooling. In 1908 the Man Mo Temple Ordinance was passed, placing the temple under the management of the Tung Wah Hospital (today's Tung Wah Group of Hospitals), with income from temple property allocated to education and charity. The building preserves Qing-dynasty granite door frames, ceramic roof-ridge decorations, and gilded wooden shrines; the huge spiral incense coils hanging in the main hall are its signature feature. It was declared a Hong Kong Declared Monument on 12 November 2010; the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals has held an annual autumn sacrificial rite there since 1957, and this rite was included in Hong Kong's first Intangible Cultural Heritage inventory in 2014.

Highlights

The shrine of the Two Emperors of Letters and Arms
The huge spiral incense coils
The Lit Shing Kung and the public hall (gongsuo)
The Man Mo Temple autumn sacrificial rite (on the Intangible Cultural Heritage inventory)

References