Poh San Teng Temple, Bukit China, Malacca马六甲宝山亭（三宝庙）
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- Malaysia · Malacca State · Malacca City · Jalan Puteri Hang Li Poh, at the foot of Bukit China (Three Treasures Hill), beside the Hang Li Poh Well
- Coordinates
- 2.1966, 102.2534 Map ↗
- First built
- 1795 · During the period of Dutch rule, construction was proposed by Kapitan Chua Su Cheong; steles from the Jiaqing era within the temple attest to this.
- Heritage status
- Related to the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca: Melaka (2008)"
Overview
Poh San Teng Temple was built in 1795, its construction proposed by Chua Su Cheong, the Malacca Chinese Kapitan appointed by the Dutch authorities that same year, and stands at the foot of Bukit China (Three Treasures Hill), beside the Hang Li Poh Well. Bukit China is the largest historic Chinese cemetery hill in Malaysia, and Poh San Teng was originally intended to provide Chinese who climbed the hill to sweep the graves a place to rest and pay their respects, while also managing the cemetery and its spring- and autumn-festival rites; its principal deity is Fude Zhengshen (Tua Pek Kong), and it is locally known as the "Three Treasures Temple." Several steles from the Jiaqing era are preserved within the temple, recording in detail the circumstances of the temple's founding, lists of donors, and regulations for the cemetery hill — a primary historical source for the study of Malacca Chinese social organization at the end of the eighteenth century. The building is in Southern Fujian style, with swallowtail ridges, cut-porcelain decoration, carved stone column bases and timber-frame beams. Poh San Teng has long been administered by the Cheng Hoon Teng system, and together with Cheng Hoon Teng forms part of the Malacca Chinese community's system of self-governance. It is a Chinese popular-religion temple that also serves as the cemetery hill's administrative body.
Highlights
- Construction proposed by Kapitan Chua Su Cheong in 1795, at the foot of Bukit China
- Provided a place to rest and pay respects for those visiting the graves, and managed the cemetery hill
- Principal deity Fude Zhengshen (Tua Pek Kong)
- Preserves steles from the Jiaqing era recording the temple's founding and the cemetery's regulations
- Southern Fujian-style architecture, long administered by the Cheng Hoon Teng system