Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park韦弗维尔云林庙

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

United States · California · Weaverville · Southwest corner of Main St (CA-299) and Oregon St

Coordinates

40.7311, -122.9408 Map ↗

First built

First built in 1853; the surviving building dates to 1874 · The earlier building was destroyed by fire; California Historical Landmark #709; listed as a California Historic Site (State Historic Park) in 1956

Heritage status

California Historical Landmark #709California State Historic Park(1956)

Overview

The main shrine is dedicated to "Zhenwu, Emperor of the Dark Heaven Who Quells the Heavens at the North Pole" (北极镇天真武玄天上帝, Beiji Zhentian Zhenwu Xuantian Shangdi, known as the "North Emperor") together with Guandi; the California State Parks guide describes the central "God of Wealth altar" as enshrining Guandi and the North Emperor, and CINARC holds nineteenth-century photographs of the temple's image of the North Emperor, one of the three principal images on the altar — this is one of only a few sites in the United States where the worship of Zhenwu, the Dark Emperor, can be confirmed. The Joss House — "The Temple among the Forest beneath the Clouds" — was first built in 1853 and rebuilt in 1874 into the structure that survives today; it is the oldest continuously used Chinese temple in California, bearing witness to the religious life of the thousands of Chinese laborers of Trinity County during the Gold Rush era. After a theft in 1934, the Chinese-American community leader Moon Lim Lee became trustee and led preservation efforts, and in 1956 the temple became a California Historic Site (State Historic Park), managed by California State Parks — one of the few Chinese temples in the United States maintained directly by a government agency. A stolen stone lion was returned in 1989, and California also commissioned traditional Chinese craftsmen to make a replacement lion. The interior of the temple retains its original appearance, with only modern safety features such as electric lighting added; the shrines, plaques, ritual implements, and offering displays are all original, and a lion dance is performed there every Lunar New Year. It is listed as California Historical Landmark No. 709. It belongs to the category of a folk religious site of Gold Rush-era Chinese laborers.

Highlights

• The oldest continuously used Chinese temple in California
• Became a California Historic Site in 1956
• A stolen stone lion was returned in 1989
• The interior retains its original appearance