Héngwén Temple and the giant statue of Xuán Wǔ 玄武

In the township of Yuanlin of Changhua county is a temple which is different to the other small local temple's, this one in particular has the giant statue of Xuán Wǔ 玄武 sitting on top of the buddhist temple's roof, the statue is 72 foot tall and has a variety of colours that decorate the statue. Xuán Wǔ is famous in Buddhism, he is also known as the 'dark warrior'.

This is the largest Xuán Wǔ statue in Taiwan.

The temple itself is not very interesting as it is the same as many of the other local temples that are found throughtout the steets of Taiwan, but this temple had decroative potrates of Xuán Wǔ story decorating the temple.

I did some research into the legend of Xuán Wǔ as I have an interestest in history, religion and mythology, so I had this strong urge to find out more about Xuán Wǔ.

The legend of Xuán Wǔ 玄武

Xuán Wǔ was born as a mortal, what his past occupation was is rather confusing, he was either a butcher or a prince, both extremely different roles but this is the part of history that is confusing, he rejected his profession to study Taoism which is a branch of the Buddhism religion,

While Xuán Wǔ is on the path of enlightment he is told by the gods to clean himself of wordly sin and impurity, these sins include for eating meat and for killing animals without remorse. Xuán Wǔ slices himself open and washes his own organs in the river, the river was stained black. His intestines transformed into a monstrous snake and his stomach turned into a demonic turtle. Both of the creatures escaped and terrorised the local people. Xuán Wǔ had achieved immortality so Xuán Wǔ charges into battle and attacks the two creatures. The snake and the turtle were defeated but not killed and soon became Xuán Wǔ allies.

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