Texas Teo Chew Temple (Ong Bon Temple), Houston休斯敦本头公庙（德州潮州会馆庙）
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- United States · Texas · Houston · 10599 (also given as 10600) Turtlewood Ct, Houston, TX 77072, in Houston's southwest Asiatown, near Arthur Storey Park; known in Vietnamese as Chùa Ông Bổn.
- Coordinates
- 29.70135, -95.56508 Map ↗
- First built
- 1999 · Founded by the Texas Teochew Association; registered in the United States as a nonprofit under the name Texas Teo-chew Temple, EIN 76-0406936.
Overview
The Bun Thau Kong Temple was founded in 1999 by Houston's Teochew Chinese community, whose core membership consists of Teochew people who, after the 1970s, immigrated a second time to the United States from Indochinese Chinatowns such as Chợ Lớn in Vietnam; known in Vietnamese as Chùa Ông Bổn, it is one of the largest Teochew-tradition temples in the southern United States. The temple follows Teochew-Chaoshan temple architectural conventions, with a wishing pool featuring the twelve zodiac animals in front. The temple itself lists fourteen deities enshrined within: first is the Jade Emperor, second is Bun Thau Kong (the God of Prosperity) for whom the temple is named, third is Tianhou (Mazu), and fifth is Guan Shengdijun (Guandi); Xuantian Shangdi is listed tenth. The temple's guide gives the name in three forms together — Chinese 'Xuantian Shangdi,' Vietnamese Huyền Thiên Đại Đế, and English 'Emperor of the North/Pak Tai' — explaining that he resides in the palace of the North Star, governs matters of national warfare and the underworld, and descends to the world to restore order amid great chaos, his raised index finger symbolizing the subduing of darkness — the Chinese characters written out directly rule out any confusion with Guandi. The significance of this temple lies in the fact that Beidi's path into North America was entirely different from that of the nineteenth-century gold-rush Chinatowns of the West Coast: it was brought in through the second wave of Teochew immigration via Vietnam at the end of the twentieth century, Xuantian Shangdi being a standard member of the Vietnamese Chinese pantheon. It should be noted that this temple is a community temple with multiple deities enshrined together, in which Xuantian Shangdi is an important subsidiary deity rather than the sole principal object of worship; it is included in this list under the category of 'important subsidiary worship.' The temple is open free of charge and serves as an important venue for Houston's Chinese community during festivals and deity-birthday celebrations.
Highlights
- Founded in 1999 by the Texas Teochew Association, one of the largest Teochew-tradition temples in the southern United States
- Founded by a Teochew Chinese community who immigrated a second time via Chợ Lớn, Vietnam
- Xuantian Shangdi is listed tenth among the temple's fourteen deities, an important subsidiary figure
- The guide gives the name in three forms together: 'Xuantian Shangdi / Huyền Thiên Đại Đế / Emperor of the North (Pak Tai)'
- Represents a second pathway for Beidi's entry into North America: Vietnamese Chinese immigration at the end of the twentieth century