Hualien Sheng-An Temple花莲胜安宫
- Type
- Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
- Location
- Taiwan, China · Taiwan · Ji'an Township, Hualien County · No. 118, Cihui 3rd Street, Sheng-An Village
- Coordinates
- 23.9773, 121.5844 Map ↗
- School
- Daoism in Taiwan
- First built
- 1949 · Originally a thatched hut; tradition holds that the Queen Mother of the West manifested her spirit through the lodger Su Liedong on June 13, 1949, and a temple was subsequently built at the site of her manifestation
- Heritage status
- Hualien County Intangible Cultural Heritage (Folk Custom Category) (2013)
Overview
The Sheng-An Temple, located in Ji'an, Hualien, principally enshrines the Boundless Empyrean Heavenly Wangmu Niangniang (the Queen Mother of the West), and is the first temple in Taiwan dedicated to the Queen Mother, the point of origin of the Wangmu (Mother Goddess) cult across the island. Tradition holds that on June 13, 1949, the Queen Mother of the West manifested her spirit through a lodger named Su Liedong, and believers built a thatched hut at the site of her manifestation to venerate her. In 1950, owing to a difference of views, the original congregation split into two factions, developing on either side of the manifestation site into the two major systems of the 'Sheng-An Temple' and the 'Cihui Tang,' each holding respectively the golden image and the golden censer of the Queen Mother; the Wangmu cult spread from Hualien across all of Taiwan, with more than a thousand branch halls, becoming a classic case of the spread of new religious movements in postwar Taiwan. The temple today covers about 6,500 ping and is built in a northern Chinese palace style, jointly venerating the Three Teachings, and its layout is based on the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Phases. It holds a minor procession every three years and a county-wide grand procession every five years; the 'Hualien Sheng-An Temple Queen Mother Procession' was registered as a Hualien County Folk Custom Intangible Cultural Heritage on July 17, 2013. The Hualien County government's official notice describes it as a Daoist belief, while scholars generally classify it under the Wangmu (Mother Goddess) cult within Taiwanese folk religion.
Highlights
- Point of origin of the Queen Mother cult in Taiwan
- The split into the Sheng-An Temple and Cihui Tang systems
- The procession (Intangible Cultural Heritage)