Klenteng Kwan Tie Bio, Pontianak坤甸关帝庙
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- Indonesia · West Kalimantan · Pontianak · Jalan Diponegoro, Pontianak
- First built
- the 19th century · Generally traced to around the 1820s; the exact year remains unconfirmed.
Overview
Kwan Tie Bio stands in the town center of Pontianak, capital of West Kalimantan Province, dedicated primarily to Guan Shengdijun (Lord Guan), and is the principal temple of the local Chinese community. West Kalimantan is the Indonesian province with the highest proportion of ethnic Chinese, predominantly Hakka and Teochew; its community's history goes back to the eighteenth-century era of the gold-mining kongsi, when self-governing Chinese organizations such as the Lanfang Kongsi (1777–1884) operated goldfields there and formed something close to a quasi-state — an especially remarkable case in overseas Chinese history. The temple stands as a continuation of the Chinese community organizations dating from the kongsi era. Guanyin, Tianshang Shengmu and Fude Zhengshen are also worshipped there. During the Suharto era it was reregistered as a Buddhist vihara, reverting to its Chinese temple name after 2000. The Chinese of Pontianak still preserve the Lantern Festival deity procession and lion- and dragon-dance traditions, and together with nearby Singkawang form the core area of Chinese religious life in West Kalimantan. There is no reliable record of the founding year.
Highlights
- The principal Chinese temple of Pontianak, capital of West Kalimantan, dedicated primarily to Guandi
- West Kalimantan is the Indonesian province with the highest proportion of ethnic Chinese
- Continues the community tradition of the eighteenth-century gold-mining kongsi era (such as the Lanfang Kongsi)
- Reregistered as a Buddhist vihara during the Suharto era
- No reliable record of the founding year