Chinese name: 關山天后宮
Located in: Guanshan Township, Taitung County
Located in Guanshan Township in Taitung County,
the Tianho Temple, founded in 1895, has been a center of faith for the Hakka,
Hoklo, Mainlanders, Plains indigenous and Amis people of Taitung’s East Rift
Valley. As this is a place where all share common faith and life circles, many
Taitung Hakka people speak indigenous languages and indigenous people speak
Hakka, and even in lifestyle and food customs people have long learned from
each other and influenced each other and this has interwoven into the
harmonious coexistence and development of the diverse ethnic groups in Taitung
today. Guanshan Tianho Temple is like everyone’s family god, and all those
living in Guanshan are of a family.
Guanshan, one of 70 Hakka townships in Taiwan,
is home to the largest temple devoted to Mazu in the East Rift Valley area, the
Tianho Temple. Many residents of the nearby townships of Chishang (池上), Haiduan (海端), Luye (鹿野) and Yanping (延平) townships make pilgrimages
to attend the temple’s three ceremonies over the course of the year, from the
Lunar Festival at Lunar New Year, to the Mazu plays of March and the
end-of-winter opera in October, with people regardless of ethnicity joining the
crowds to celebrate the events. This is especially the case at the time of
Mazu’s birthday, March 23 of the lunar calendar, when each of Guanshan’s seven
neighborhood associations take it in turns to hold a ceremony to celebrate
Mazu’s birthday, during the course of which Mazu goes around all seven
neighborhoods.
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(Photo: Taitung County Government)
Furthermore, Tianho Temple each year selects
one person in Guanshan's seven neighborhoods to serve as that year's “Censor
Master,” who is responsible for hosting the ceremonial event. Unlike other
temples in Hakka townships, where it is mostly Hakka people who is chosen to be
the censer master, Guanshan Tianho Temple rotates this honor among the various
ethnic groups, for example in 2018 when it was Yang Ching-shun (楊清順) from the Amis indigenous people group. In Guanshan, the
different ethnic groups take part together in the lively celebrations, praying
for local people’s well-being and safety.
Occupying an area of 400 ping (1,300 square meters), the temple has over a hundred years of history, and what has not changed through the passing of generations is its power to settle people’s hearts. After you go through the majestic arch of the temple plaza, before you go into the temple you observe that its backdrop is an unbroken line of emerald green mountains; after entering the temple you will see the approximately 1.2 meter statue of Mazu in the main hall. So if you want to experience Hakka culture that is different to what you would find in the west of Taiwan, or to meet people of other ethnicities and languages, pay a visit to the Guanshan Tianho Temple as the best place to get to know the lives and faith of local residents.