Klenteng Hok An Kiong, Surabaya泗水福安宫

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Indonesia · East Java Province · Surabaya · Jalan Coklat No.2, Bongkaran, Pabean Cantian, Surabaya

First built

late 18th century · Generally held to have been rebuilt around 1830; the founding date is yet to be determined

Heritage status

Listed as Cultural Heritage (Cagar Budaya) of Surabaya

Overview

Klenteng Hok An Kiong is located in Surabaya's Chinatown and is dedicated mainly to Mazu, serving as the principal temple of Surabaya's Hokkien-descended Chinese community. Accounts of its founding date differ, and reconstruction in the early nineteenth century is generally regarded as the more credible account. The building is a three-courtyard Southern Hokkien-style compound complete with cut-porcelain roof ridges, stone-carved dragon pillars, and carved wooden beams and brackets, and the temple preserves Qing-dynasty plaques, a bronze bell, and a deity palanquin. Surabaya was the largest port in East Java, and in the nineteenth century Chinese there were engaged in the sugar industry, shipping, and trade, so that the worship of Mazu flourished along with maritime commerce. The temple is now registered under Indonesian law within the Tridharma temple system. Mazu's birthday (the twenty-third day of the third lunar month) and the Lantern Festival are the temple's major annual celebrations, with a procession of the deity's palanquin circling through Chinatown. Standing in the same old city district of Surabaya as Klenteng Hong Tiek Hian and Boen Bio (the Confucian temple), this temple, together with the other two, represents three distinct orientations — popular religion, the syncretism of the Three Teachings, and Confucianism — making the district a good sample for observing the religious differentiation of Indonesian Chinese.

Highlights

• The principal temple of Surabaya's Hokkien-descended Chinese community, dedicated mainly to Mazu
• A three-courtyard Southern Hokkien-style compound preserving Qing-dynasty plaques, a bronze bell, and a deity palanquin
• Reflects nineteenth-century Chinese involvement in Surabaya's sugar industry, shipping, and trade
• Located in the same old city district as Hong Tiek Hian and Boen Bio, representing three distinct orientations of Chinese religion
• Founding date yet to be determined