The Dajia Jenn Lann Temple,. also known as the Zhenlan or Mazu Temple, is a

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

dedicated to the Chinese Goddess Mazu, the Goddess of Sea and Patron Deity of fishermen, sailors and any occupations related to sea/ocean. The temple is located in the

Dajia District Dajia District () is a coastal suburban district in Taichung, Taiwan. It is located on the northwestern corner of Taichung. The climate of the region is Sub-tropical, and the average temperature is roughly 24 degrees Celsius. In March 2012, ...

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Ta ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. It is known for being the start of the Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage, an annual celebration of the sea goddess.

History

The temple started as a small temple in 1730, the 8th year of Yongzheng Era of the Qing

Dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage

The largest annual religious procession in Taiwan is organized by the Jenn Lann Temple in Taichung's Dajia District. The procession celebrates the birthday of the sea goddess Mazu and features the Mazu statue of the Jenn Lann Temple. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gather along the more than 340 kilometres route that extends through Taichung, as well as Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi counties. The procession ends at Fongtian Temple in Xingang Chiayi.

Taiwan Mazu Fellowship

The Dajia Temple organized in the late 1980s the first association of Mazu temples, called Taiwan Mazu Fellowship (台灣媽祖聯誼會). Its membership increased gradually from eighteen temples in 1990 to sixty temples in 2010. This is not the only association of Mazu temples in Taiwan, as it is rivaled by the Taiwan Golden Orchid Association of Temples (台灣寺廟金蘭會), which in 2010 included seventy temples (some of them not devoted to Mazu). According to scholar Hsun Chang, while some temples are affiliated to both associations, there are political differences in attitudes to both Mainland China (the Mazu Fellowship being more pro-Chinese) and local politics, the Fellowship favoring the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

and the Golden Orchid Association the Democratic Progressive Party.Hsun Chang, "Multiple Religious and National Identities: Mazu Pilgrimages across the Taiwan Strait after 1987," in Cheng-tian Kuo (Ed.), ''Religion and Nationalism in Chinese Societies'', Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017, 373–396 (382).

Transportation

The temple is accessible within walking distance west of

Dajia Station Dajia () is a railway station on the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) West Coast line (Coastal line) located in Dajia District, Taichung, Taiwan. History The station was opened on 11 October 1922. Around the station * Dajia Jenn Lann Tem ...

of Taiwan Railways.

References

External links