Ma-Tsu Temple of U.S.A., San Francisco旧金山美国妈祖庙朝圣宫
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- United States · California · San Francisco · 30 Beckett Street, Chinatown; originally located on Grant Avenue between 1986 and 1996
- Coordinates
- 37.79649, -122.40631 Map ↗
- First built
- 1986 · Approved as a religious site on August 19, 1986; moved to its current site on Beckett Street in 1996
Overview
The Ma-Tsu Temple of U.S.A. was founded in 1986 on the initiative of Gao Jiade (also known by the sobriquet Yisheng) of the Taiwanese community in San Francisco, together with Xing Renyou, a practitioner skilled in Chan-style healing, and others; it is dedicated primarily to Mazu, the Heavenly Sovereign Empress, and maintains a division-of-incense and pilgrimage relationship with Chaotian Temple in Beigang, Yunlin, Taiwan. The temple's founding reflects the changing demographic composition of the Chinese American population following the 1965 revision of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, as well as the transnational Taiwan–America community network supported by Taiwan's economic takeoff in the 1980s — a social basis clearly distinct from that of nineteenth-century association-style temples such as the Tin How Temple founded two streets away in 1852. The temple identifies itself as a Daoist temple; daily ritual is conducted by resident temple staff, and a procession and birthday rite are held every year on the twenty-third day of the third lunar month, Mazu's birthday. In terms of doctrinal affiliation, Mazu worship belongs to Chinese popular religion, though its rites have long been conducted by Zhengyi Daoist priests, and temples in Taiwan and North America commonly describe themselves as "Daoist."
Highlights
- Founded in 1986, a representative temple of the Taiwanese American immigrant community
- Maintains a division-of-incense relationship with Chaotian Temple, Beigang, Yunlin
- Belongs to a different generation of worship from the 1852 Tin How Temple
- Procession held on the twenty-third day of the third lunar month, Mazu's birthday