Guandi Shrine and Sociedad Central de Beneficencia China, Lima利马唐人街关帝坛与中华通惠总局

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Peru · Lima · Lima · The Guandi altar is installed in the Lung Kong Ko So, at Jirón Paruro Nº 756; the Sociedad Central de Beneficencia China stands in the Capón street area of Chinatown

First built

China Central Benevolent Association (founded 1886) · First proposed in 1884 by Zheng Zaoru, the minister accredited to the United States, Hispania (Spain) and Peru, and formally established in 1886 by edict of the Guangxu Emperor; the cult of Guandi is attached to an association altar, and no independent Guandi temple building is known

Overview

The cult of Guandi in the Chinese community of Peru exists in the form of an association altar: the Guandi (Kuan Kung) altar of Lima’s Chinatown is installed in the Lung Kong Ko So, and there are also multicultural altars locally at which Guandi and the Virgin Mary are enshrined together, an expression of the deep fusion of Chinese and Peruvian belief. The Sociedad Central de Beneficencia China (“Ton Huy Chong Koc”), which governs the affairs of the Chinese in Peru, was first proposed in 1884 by Zheng Zaoru, the Qing minister accredited to the United States, Hispania (Spain) and Peru, and was formally established in 1886 by edict of the Guangxu Emperor; it is the highest representative body of the Chinese in Peru and is by nature a Chinese charitable federation rather than a Daoist temple. Most Chinese in Peru are descended from the indentured labourers (the so-called “piglets”) of the mid-nineteenth century, and their numbers are the largest in Latin America; their religious life, however, has long been carried by association altars and household worship rather than by independent temple buildings, in contrast to the temple-centred pattern of the Chinese communities of North America and Southeast Asia.

Highlights

• The Guandi altar installed in the Lung Kong Ko So
• Guandi enshrined together with the Virgin Mary
• The Sociedad Central de Beneficencia China (1886), established by edict of the Guangxu Emperor
• An association altar rather than an independent temple