Kong Ngie Tong Sang, Paramaribo帕拉马里博广义堂
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- Suriname · Paramaribo · Paramaribo · In central Paramaribo; houses a Bak Mei martial arts school
- First built
- Chinese community formed from the nineteenth century · No reliable record of the exact founding year of Kong Ngie Tong Sang
Overview
Kong Ngie Tong Sang (廣義堂) is one of the principal Chinese community association halls in Suriname, located in the capital Paramaribo, with a Bak Mei (White Eyebrow) martial arts school attached. The Chinese in Suriname began with indentured laborers in the nineteenth century, with a further wave of immigration in the 1950s and 60s; the 2012 census recorded 7,885 people of Chinese ethnicity. Overseas Chinese tong associations (such as Kong Ngie Tong Sang, the Hongmen, and the Chee Kung Tong) typically combine three functions — mutual aid among people from the same native place, transmission of martial arts, and the cult of Guandi: martial arts schools venerate Guandi as their patriarch and protector, uniting the practice of martial arts with worship, a form typical of southern Chinese martial arts communities transplanted overseas. Paramaribo has seen riots targeting the Chinese, with Chinese shops and restaurants looted; Bak Mei practitioners once gathered at Kong Ngie Tong Sang to defend the martial arts school. It must be noted honestly that this is an association and martial arts school rather than an independent temple, its religious content attached to the daily operation of the tong and the school.
Highlights
- One of the principal Chinese community association halls in Suriname
- A Bak Mei martial arts school is attached
- The martial arts school venerates Guandi as its patriarch and protector
- 7,885 people of Chinese ethnicity recorded in Suriname's 2012 census
- An association and martial arts school, not an independent temple