Klenteng Poncowinatan (Fuk Ling Miau), Yogyakarta日惹福灵庙

Type: Overseas Daoist Temples
Location: Indonesia · Yogyakarta Special Region · Yogyakarta · Jalan Poncowinatan, Kranggan, Yogyakarta
First built: 1881 · Built on land granted by Sultan Hamengkubuwono VII of Yogyakarta
Heritage status: Listed as a Cagar Budaya (Cultural Heritage Site) of the Yogyakarta Special Region

Overview

Klenteng Poncowinatan (also known as Fuk Ling Miau, the "Temple of Blessed Numinosity") was built in 1881 on land granted by Sultan Hamengkubuwono VII of Yogyakarta, and is the most important Chinese temple in Yogyakarta. The manner of its establishment is distinctive: the Javanese sultan personally granted land to the Chinese community to build the temple, reflecting the nineteenth-century cooperative relationship between Yogyakarta's royal power and the Chinese commercial community — the Chinese often served as tax collectors and commercial intermediaries, and the sultan granted land for a temple as a means of winning their loyalty. It is dedicated principally to Guanyin (Kwan Im Hud Couw), with subsidiary worship of Guandi, Fude Zhengshen, and Mazu. The building is a mixture of Hokkien and Javanese styles, with the wall paintings and roof-ridge decoration bearing features of both traditions. During the Suharto era it was re-registered as a Buddhist vihara under the legal name Vihara Buddha Prabha; after 2000 the Chinese temple name was restored for concurrent use. It is now registered within the Tridharma temple system.

Highlights

Built in 1881 on land granted by the Sultan of Yogyakarta
Reflects the cooperative relationship between Javanese royal power and the Chinese commercial community
Dedicated principally to Guanyin, with subsidiary worship of Guandi, Fude Zhengshen, and Mazu
A building mixing Hokkien and Javanese architectural styles
Legal name Vihara Buddha Prabha

References