Lum Sai Ho Tong Tin Hau Temple, Honolulu檀香山林西河堂天后庙

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

United States · Hawaii State · Honolulu · 1315 River St, Honolulu, HI 96817; within Chinatown

First built

The association was founded in 1889; the River Street lot was purchased in 1899; the present three-story building was constructed in the 1950s · Operated by the Lum clan association, which venerates Tianhou as an ancestral worthy of the clan

Overview

The Lum Sai Ho Tong Tin Hau Temple was founded in 1889 by the Lum (also romanized Lim, Lam, Lem, or Lin) clan association of Honolulu as a mutual-aid society, its members tracing their ancestry to areas west of the Yellow River in China. The association purchased land at River Street and Kukui Street in 1899, and the surviving three-story building dates from the 1950s. The second floor houses the temple hall, dedicated primarily to Tianhou (Mazu), while the third floor serves as the association's meeting hall. What is distinctive about this temple is that it venerates Tianhou as an ancestral worthy of the Lum clan itself — since Mazu's secular surname was Lin/Lum — so the clan association merges worship of the sea goddess with ancestor veneration, a typical form of clan-based overseas Chinese temple. The building is a three-story hollow-brick structure with an ornate false facade and a two-tiered pagoda-style roof of green glazed tile, a landmark of Honolulu's Chinatown; the interior holds an elaborate shrine and openwork wood carving. It stands opposite the Kwan Yin Temple (Buddhist) across the street, forming a pair of adjacent Chinese religious buildings in Chinatown. No clear public record of heritage-register status has been found.

Highlights

• Operated by the Lum clan association
• Tianhou venerated as an ancestral worthy of the clan
• Two-tiered pagoda-style roof of green glazed tile
• A landmark of Honolulu's Chinatown