Longshan Temple

Longshan Temple

Longshan temple is located in the southwest of Taipei City, near the Tamsui River. It was founded in 1738 and completed in five years. The original name of the site is "pa" (today's Wanhua), which is the starting point of Taipei city. There are many statues of God, the main god of Guanyin Buddha, also known as Anhai Guanyin. Every year, there is a grand ceremony for the God's birthday on February 19 of the lunar calendar. The original buildings were damaged by the earthquake and wind and rain successively between Jiaqing and Tongzhi. Most of the existing buildings were rebuilt from 1920 to 1926 and expanded from 1953 to 1965. The two copper pillars preserved on both sides of the stone steps of the main gate are early relics and important works of art.

survey

Longshan temple is located at 211 Guangzhou Street, Taipei city. Nie Li is in Wanhua night market of Fengyun Jihui. It is a famous ancient temple in the province and famous at home and abroad.

Longshan temple was built in the 5th year of Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty. The architectural design adopts a three-stage pattern, which is composed of the front hall, the back hall, the East and West treasure protection hall and the central main hall. The layout is square and solemn, and the beams and columns on the door wall are exquisitely carved. It is a collection of temple art of Qing Dynasty, Japanese occupation and restoration. Its appearance is similar to that of Qingshui ancestral temple and Danshui Yinshan temple.

"One government, two deer and three horses" (Zhoujia) ", Wanhua's past glory, is of historical significance. It represents the early development and keeps pace with Tainan and Lukang!

It mainly worships Guanyin Bodhisattva, Mazu, the Dragon King of the four seas, the eighteen Arhats, the City God, Zhusheng Niangniang, the mountain god, the earth God and other typical gods and Buddhas. The saying that "Longshan temple is a collection of gods" means that it worships many gods and Buddhas.

Every folk festival has grand lanterns and temples. Today, Longshan temple has become a tourist temple. The surrounding conventional flavor street has a folk flavor.

In the early years of Yongzheng period (1723), people from Jinjiang, Nan'an and Hui'an in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, crossed the sea to build several thatched cottages and sell sweet potatoes, which gradually became a small village People use canoes to carry agricultural products from the upper reaches of the Danshui River to trade with Han people. Pingpu People call canoes "Ga", which is the origin of the name of "Ga".

In the early years, the Han people came to Taipei for cultivation. It was a place full of pestilence. As the saying goes, "three died in six and one turned back. The environment was very dangerous. In order to seek God's blessing, they carried more incense from their hometown temples for protection. For a long time, in order to seek more peace of mind, in 1738, Sanyi people jointly built Longshan temple, and sincerely invited Guanyin Bodhisattva branch of Longshan Temple in Anhai Township, Jinjiang County, Fujian Province In 1884, when the Sino French war broke out, the French army occupied shiqiuling in Keelung, and the residents organized a volunteer army. That is to say, the seal of Longshan temple was used to help defeat the French army and win the title of Emperor Guangxu On the other side of the plaque, "Cihui Yuanyin" was granted, and its prestige was officially recognized. In fact, it was not limited to the meaning of worship in religious letters.

Longshan temple, with a total area of more than 1800 square meters, faces south and faces in the shape of a sun. It is a traditional Chinese classical palace style building with three entrances and four courtyards. It is composed of the front hall, the main hall, the back hall and the left and right dragon guards. The front hall has eleven rooms, which are divided into Sanchuan hall, Longmen hall and Humen hall. The roof adopts the single eaves style of Xieshan mountain. Each of them is independent. There is a pair of copper cast dragon eaves in Sanchuan hall, which is the only one in Taiwan The front wall is composed of granite and qingdou stone. The images are vivid and soft. The stories are mostly from the romance of the Three Kingdoms and the list of gods, and decorated with Chinese auspicious Eucalyptus. The dragon and tiger hall has three bays each, showing all kinds of stone carving art, such as line carving, through carving, floating carving, Yin carving and shallow floating carving. The roof of the main hall is of Xieshan double eaves style There are 42 pillars in the four sides of the corridor. There are many famous calligraphers' stone carvings on the outer wall of the hall. The spirulina well on the roof of the hall is constructed by a bucket arch. It does not need a nail or an iron. The shrine is exquisite and magnificent. The roof of the back hall is Xieshan double eaves, and the two wings are hard mountain single eaves. The roof ridge is made of clay sculpture of caizishou. It is a typical place where the Confucian and Taoist gods and Buddhas worshipped, and the left and right dragon roof It is a hard mountain with single eaves, with bell tower on the left, Drum Tower on the right, morning bell and evening drum. The roof of the bell and Drum Tower is a flat hexagon with a unique shape. The temple's roof ridge and cornices are shaped by auspicious animal like dragon, Phoenix and Kirin. They are decorated with colored glass ceramic sheets, and they are decorated with colored and coquettik. The colors are magnificent, and they are called the essence of Taiwan's unique shearing art.

Longshan Temple

In 1985, it was a national historic site protected by the government. In recent years, in order to serve the broad masses of believers and tourists, in addition to strengthening the maintenance of historic sites, it has also added facilities such as library, underground toilet, Heritage Museum, garden waterfall landscape and night lighting, and handled youth scholarships, scholarships and other services New year's ceremony, social education activities, emergency relief, winter relief, medical Buddhist lectures, psychological counseling and other activities are used to promote Buddhism, help all living beings, promote social education, change customs, and make people's life more peaceful and happy.

Kailongshan temple regularly holds festivals and folk activities every year, such as lantern exhibition in the first month of the lunar calendar, Buddha Bathing Festival in April and Yulan basin victory meeting in July. When people come to kailongshan temple, they can not only enjoy the beauty of architectural art of Taiwan temples, but also experience the fun of traditional folk culture.

influence

The new Longshan temple is magnificent in scale and exquisitely shaped. It was rebuilt by the great earthquake in 1815 in Jiaqing, and rebuilt by the storm in 1867. In 1919, the pillars of the temple were seriously eroded by termites. Master Fuzhi, the abbot of the temple, first donated more than 7000 yuan in his life to raise funds for restoration, which laid the foundation for today's Longshan temple（ 1945) after the Second World War, the central hall was completely destroyed, but the Guanyin Bodhisattva was still sitting on the lotus. At that time, most of the residents in the neighborhood avoided being under the lotus seat of Guanyin Bodhisattva because they believed that it was absolutely safe under the protection of the Bodhisattva. Sure enough, the central hall was seriously destroyed, and no one took refuge under the lotus seat of Guanyin Bodhisattva on that day It is difficult for the residents to tell each other that they believe that it is the protection of Guanyin Bodhisattva, which also makes the believers more reverent to Guanyin Bodhisattva.

Historical evolution

Initial construction

Kailongshan temple was first built on May 18, the third year of Qianlong reign in Qing Dynasty (1738 AD), and was completed on February 8, 2005. The cost of building the temple was donated by the people of Jinjiang, Hui'an and Nan'an. Later, some merchants from Wurong, a suburb of Quanzhou, paid for the construction of the houdian temple to worship the empress dowager, wuwenchang and Guandi. During the Qianlong period, Longshan Temple had formed a three Hall pattern of front hall, main hall and back hall.

The first renovation

On June 5, 1814, the building of Longshan temple was destroyed by an earthquake. People in Sanyi proposed to donate money for reconstruction. After several months of fund-raising, the reconstruction began on October 18 of the same year. This is the second large-scale construction of kailongshan temple. Its form is the courtyard type three Hall pattern often used by larger temples in Taiwan in the middle of Qing Dynasty

Second renovation

On August 20 of the sixth year of tongzhi (1867), a typhoon ravaged the hillside again, causing a slight collapse and damage. The hillside was renovated again in the same year.

The third renovation

In 1919 (the eighth year of the Republic of China), the pillars were damaged by insects, and the pilasters were peeling off. The situation was very dangerous, so the local powerful people proposed to build them. After raising funds, the project was officially started on January 18, 1920 and completed on March 12, four years later.

Restoration after restoration

At the end of the Second World War, the main hall was unfortunately hit by the incendiary bombs dropped by the Allied planes, all of which were damaged. It was not rebuilt until 1954, and it was completed in 46.

Rebuild

Wenchang Hall of houdian was rebuilt in 1982 due to Huilu and completed in December 1983. Guandi hall and Mazu hall were rebuilt in December 1997 due to mildew and termite erosion and completed on June 30, 1999.

Since its establishment in the third year of Qianlong reign in the Qing Dynasty, Longshan temple has undergone major repairs in the year of Jiaqing, minor repairs in the year of Tongzhi, major renovations in the year of Taisho under Japanese rule, and several constructions after the restoration of Taiwan. Of course, there were dozens of minor repairs, such as the decoration of the ridge of the house, the painted beams, the replacement of the roof of the bell and Drum Tower, and the reconstruction of the Wenchang temple in the back hall due to the disaster of Zhu Rong. When you visit Longshan temple, if you observe it carefully, you will find that it is a magnificent and exquisite temple, and there are still relics of previous construction everywhere.

Therefore, kailongshan temple can be said to be a temple art which was comprehensively expressed in the Qing Dynasty, the Japanese occupation period and the post restoration period. Longshan temple is not only a representative temple in Taiwan, but also occupies a place in the history of Taipei. Because Longshan temple has always been the public and core symbol of the local area, the management directors and supervisors of the temple are also composed of gentry, which has a great influence on the outside world. In the Qing Dynasty, all the official documents bearing the seal of Longshan temple were of great importance.

architectural art

The gate, also known as the archway, is a double eaves building with four pillars and three intermittences. On the gate pillars is engraved with the inscription "dragon elephant represents the magic power of Buddhism" written by Sun Ke

Chinese PinYin : Long Shan Si