Beidou Dian'an Temple ( zh, t=北斗奠安宮, p=Běidǒu Diànān Gōng) is a temple located in Beidou Township, Changhua County, Taiwan. The temple is dedicated to the sea goddess

Mazu Mazu or Matsu is a Chinese sea goddess also known by several other names and titles. She is the deified form of the legendary figure Lin Mo or Lin Moniang, a Fujianese shamaness whose life span is traditionally dated from 960 to 987. Re ...

, who is the deified form of Lin Moniang.

History

The history of Dian'an Temple traces back to another temple in Dongluo known as Tianhou Temple (current-day Jiumei in

Xizhou Township Xizhou is the atonal pinyin romanization of various Chinese words and names. It may refer to: * Xizhou, the Chinese name of the Western Zhou dynasty * Xizhou, Xinjiang (西州), a former name of Turpan in Xinjiang * Xizhou, Changhua (溪州鄉), ...

). Sources disagree on when Tianhou Temple was founded (1684 or 1718), but the small temple was one of the first Mazu temples in southern Changhua and had a devout following. In the late 18th century, floods and conflicts between

Quanzhou Quanzhou, postal map romanization, alternatively known as Chinchew, is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China. It is Fujian's largest metrop ...

and Zhangzhou settlers caused widespread damage to Dongluo. Therefore, in 1806, Tianhou Temple was moved from Dongluo north to current-day Beidou, which had a higher elevation, and was renamed as Dian'an Temple. Despite being protected as a level three monument in 1983, Dian'an Temple was in desperate need of repair, leading to heated debates on how to preserve the building. A rear hall was constructed in 1985, and the original temple was dismantled and moved to Taiwan Cultural Park, a tourist attraction in

Huatan Township Huatan Township () is a rural township in Changhua County, Taiwan. History Formerly called ''Katangkha'' (). Geography Huatan encompasses and a population of 46,142, including 23,692 males and 22,450 females as of January 2017. Administrati ...

, in 1988. The older temple's protected status was removed the same year. Then, between 1989 and 2003, a new temple was constructed on the original site. Meanwhile, Taiwan Cultural Park was heavily damaged after the

1999 Jiji earthquake The Chi-Chi earthquake (later also known as the Jiji earthquake) (), also known as the great earthquake of September 21 (), was a 7.3 ML or 7.7 Mw earthquake which occurred in Jiji (Chi-Chi), Nantou County, Taiwan on Tuesday, 21 Se ...

and was closed to the public. Dian'an Temple was fortunately not destroyed, but the park's closure meant that it was left unprotected. On 1 July 2013, the original Dian'an Temple was redesignated as a historical building as a first step to the building's preservation. In November 2020, the Changhua County Government formed a committee to reconstruct it in the current Dian'an Temple's parking lot.

Architecture

The current Dian'an Temple in Beidou is unique in that it contains a market in the rear hall. During the building's construction, the temple lacked the funds to complete the building, so they allocated a space for market vendors for extra income to the temple. After damage in the 1999 Jiji earthquake, the market was refurbished and completed in 2016.

References

{{reflist 1806 establishments in Taiwan Religious buildings and structures completed in 1806 Mazu temples in Changhua County