Sociedad Religiosa y de Beneficencia Yan Wo, Panama City巴拿马城仁和会馆关帝庙

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Panama · Panamá Province · Panama City · Calle Carlos A. Mendoza, in Chinatown

First built

Late 19th to early 20th century · No reliable record of the exact founding year; still the most important religious site for Panama's Chinese community today

Overview

The Sociedad Religiosa y de Beneficencia Yan Wo is located on Calle Carlos A. Mendoza in Panama City's Chinatown. Its principal deity is Guandi (known locally as Kuan Kung or Kuan Tai), and it is the most important religious site for Panama's Chinese community: Chinese festivals such as Lunar New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and Guandi's birthday are all celebrated here. The history of the Chinese in Panama begins on 30 March 1854, when the first indentured Chinese laborers landed aboard the Sea Witch to build the Panama Railroad; they later took part in the construction of the Panama Canal, suffering heavy casualties that long went unacknowledged. By the early twentieth century Chinese merchants already owned more than six hundred retail stores and were a mainstay of the country's supply of goods, yet they were subjected to discriminatory legislation in 1903, 1913 and 1928 and stripped of citizenship under the 1941 constitution, not regaining it until 1946. Today there are about 350,000 people of Chinese descent in Panama, eighty percent of them Hakka, making it the largest Chinese community in Central America, with more than thirty-five ethnic associations. This temple combines both religious and charitable (beneficencia) functions.

Highlights

• Principal deity Guandi; the most important religious site for Panama's Chinese community
• First indentured Chinese laborers arrived in 1854 to build the Panama Railroad
• 1941 constitution stripped Chinese of citizenship, restored in 1946
• About 350,000 people of Chinese descent, eighty percent Hakka
• Combines both religious and charitable functions