Hong San Si Temple, Kuching古晋凤山寺

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Malaysia · Sarawak (state) · Kuching · Jalan Wayang / Jalan Ewe Hai, Kuching's old town

First built

1840s · Generally dated to 1848, founded by immigrants from Nan'an, Fujian; the exact year is disputed

Overview

Hong San Si Temple in Kuching was founded in the 1840s (generally given as 1848) by immigrants from Nan'an in Fujian, and is dedicated primarily to Guangze Zunwang (Lord Guo the Sage). It shares a common origin with Hong San See in Singapore and the ancestral Hong San Si in Nan'an. The temple stands in Kuching's old town (around Jalan Wayang), and is built in Hokkien-style timber-and-stone construction; it has undergone repeated renovations. Every year on the twenty-second day of the second lunar month, a deity procession is held to mark Guangze Zunwang's birthday, a major festival for the Kuching Chinese community. Devotion to Guangze Zunwang is a native-place cult originating in Nan'an county in southern Fujian, and its distribution across the Nanyang almost exactly follows the migration routes of Nan'an emigrants — the Hong San Si temples in Kuching, Sibu, Singapore, Manila, and elsewhere together form a traceable network of native-place devotion, an important clue for the study of the history of Hokkien migration. It is a native-place folk-religion temple, not a Daoist monastic institution. There are differing accounts of the founding date in popular tradition, and this entry notes the discrepancy.

Highlights

• Founded by immigrants from Nan'an, Fujian (c. 1848), dedicated primarily to Guangze Zunwang
• Shares a common origin with Hong San See in Singapore and the ancestral temple in Nan'an
• A deity procession is held on the twenty-second day of the second lunar month to mark Guangze Zunwang's birthday
• A marker of devotion tracing the migration routes of Nan'an emigrants from southern Fujian
• Located in Kuching's old town, built in Hokkien-style timber-and-stone construction