Lit Sung Goong Temple Collection, Rockhampton罗克汉普顿列圣宫文物

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Australia · Queensland · Rockhampton · Former site in Rockhampton; the artifacts are now held in a local museum

First built

the end of the nineteenth century · Artifact acquisitions are concentrated between December 1899 and January 1907, with further additions between 1940 and 1947; the building no longer survives

Overview

Lit Sung Goong in Rockhampton was a temple of the central Queensland Chinese community, its principal deity Guandi. Its significance lies in the rare, continuous record of acquisitions it has left behind: the temple's furnishings can be traced through purchases made between December 1899 and January 1907, with further additions between 1940 and 1947, allowing researchers to reconstruct, from documented inventories, the accumulation of furnishings in an Australian Chinese temple over time — a case extremely rare in the study of Australian Chinese religious history. A temple also once stood nearby at Bouldercombe. It should be stated clearly that the temple building itself no longer survives; what remains today is a collection of artifacts rather than a temple that can be visited for worship. The Chinese of central Queensland were mostly engaged in gold mining, market gardening, and hawking; as the community dispersed in the early twentieth century under the White Australia Policy and an aging population, the temple fell out of use.

Highlights

• Its principal deity was Guandi, worshipped by the central Queensland Chinese community
• A continuous record of artifact acquisitions from 1899 to 1907
• Further acquisitions added between 1940 and 1947
• The building no longer survives; only the artifact collection remains