Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple香港黄大仙祠（啬色园）
- Type
- Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
- Location
- Hong Kong, China · Hong Kong · Wong Tai Sin District, Kowloon · No. 2 Chuk Yuen Village; altar name 'Pu Yi Tan'; next to Wong Tai Sin MTR station
- Coordinates
- 22.3426, 114.1936 Map ↗
- School
- Daoist Temples and Altars of Hong Kong and Macau
- First built
- 1921 · Predecessor altars were the Pujidan in Panyu, Guangzhou (1899) and later the Puqingdan at Xiqiao; in 1915 Leung Yan-am and his son brought a painted image of Wong Tai Sin to Hong Kong, and in 1921 built a shrine at Chuk Yuen and founded Sik Sik Yuen.
- Heritage status
- Hong Kong Grade I Historic Building (2010)
Overview
The Wong Tai Sin Temple is the most actively worshipped Daoist temple in Hong Kong, administered by the charitable organization Sik Sik Yuen. Wong Tai Sin is Huang Chuping, a Jin-dynasty goatherd of Jinhua; the episode of 'striking stones into sheep' is recorded in Ge Hong's Biographies of Divine Immortals. In the late Qing, the Pujidan altar in Panyu, Guangdong, and later the Puqingdan altar at Xiqiao, Nanhai, venerated him through spirit-writing revelations. In 1915 Leung Yan-am and his son brought a painted image of the immortal from Guangdong to Hong Kong, and in 1921 they built a shrine at Chuk Yuen in Kowloon, founding Sik Sik Yuen the same year. The temple upholds the principle of 'joint veneration of the Three Teachings — Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism'; its central axis includes the Main Hall, the Three Saints Hall (Patriarch Lü, Guanyin and Guandi), the Lin Ge (Confucius) and the Yu Heung Pavilion, with the Good Wish Garden, the Nine Dragon Wall and the Yuen Sun Hall (Doumu and the Sixty-year Cycle of Year Gods) also built on the grounds. In its early years the temple was open only to Daoist followers; from 1934 it began opening annually during the first lunar month, and in 1956 it opened fully to the public. It is renowned for its fortune-telling sticks and their interpretation, and its New Year's Eve rush for the 'first incense' is a major event of Hong Kong folk custom. Sik Sik Yuen also operates primary and secondary schools, elderly homes, and Chinese and Western medicine clinics, and it was the first Daoist organization in Hong Kong authorized to perform Daoist weddings and issue marriage certificates. The Main Hall was declared a Grade I historic building of Hong Kong in 2010.
Highlights
- Main Hall and Three Saints Hall
- Wong Tai Sin fortune-telling sticks
- Yuen Sun Hall and the Year Gods
- Good Wish Garden
- First-incense rush
- Daoist weddings