Wudao City God Temple, Kinmen金门浯岛城隍庙

Type

Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)

Location

Taiwan, China · Taiwan · Jincheng Township, Kinmen County · No. 40, Guangqian Road; Kinmen City also has the Gudi City God Temple built during the Hongwu era of the Ming

Coordinates

24.4323, 118.3161 Map ↗

School

Daoism in Taiwan

First built

1680 (the 19th year of the Kangxi era, Qing; incense divided to Houpu) · In the twentieth year of the Hongwu era of the Ming (1387), the Earl of Jiangxia, Zhou Dexing, built the Gudi City God Temple at Kinmen City; in the nineteenth year of Kangxi, the regional commander Chen Long relocated to Houpu and divided incense there; the Houpu City God Temple was completed in the eighteenth year of the Jiaqing era (1813); expansion began in 1994 and reconstruction was completed in 1998

Heritage status

National Important Folk Custom "Kinmen Welcoming the City God" (2013)

Overview

The Wudao City God Temple is one of the principal centers of belief in the Kinmen region, principally enshrining the City God (imperially titled Earl of Manifest Protection). The cult of the City God in Kinmen began with the ancient Gudi City God Temple, built in the twentieth year of the Hongwu era of the Ming (1387) when the Earl of Jiangxia, Zhou Dexing, constructed the Kinmen Garrison City; the early-Qing coastal evacuation policy caused the original temple to be destroyed, and in the nineteenth year of the Kangxi reign (1680), the regional commander Chen Long moved the regional command headquarters from Kinmen City to Houpu, dividing incense from the Gudi City God to Ximenli in Houpu — this was the beginning of the Wudao City God Temple, completed in the eighteenth year of the Jiaqing era (1813). Expansion began in 1994 and reconstruction was completed in 1998; the temple today is a reinforced-concrete building in an antique style, preserving traditional decorative craftsmanship, with a 'Wudao City God Temple Cultural Relics Gallery' in its basement. The 'Kinmen Welcoming of the City God' commemorates the relocation of the regional command in the nineteenth year of Kangxi, and is held every year on the twelfth day of the fourth lunar month as a procession for peace, a tradition passed down for more than 330 years, with performance troupes including palanquins, decorated floats (yige) and centipede-form processions (wugongzuo); it was designated a National Important Folk Custom on October 4, 2013, the first such designation among Taiwan's outlying islands. Kinmen today has three surviving City God temples: the Gudi temple in Kinmen City, the Wudao temple in Houpu, and the temple in Tianpu.

Highlights

• The Kinmen Welcoming of the City God (National Important Folk Custom)
• The division of incense to Houpu in the nineteenth year of Kangxi
• Centipede-form and decorated-float processions
• The Cultural Relics Gallery