Search

The Grand Matsu Temple and its Dark Past

Marcus James Woolley
Jan 23, 2018
4 min read

On my journey to find the true meaning of the sea goddess Matsu (Mazu) in Taiwan, I travelled down south to Tainan city which homes one of Taiwan's most holiest temple's, '

The Grand Matsu Temple.' The goddess Matsu is one of the most important deities of the Buddhism religion in Taiwan, as the country is an island nation, many people had to make the perilous journey from the mainland of China, over the South Chinese Sea to reach the shores, they believed that Matsu protected them on their voyage, there is around 4500 Matsu temples that exist in Taiwan today, this is crazy to think considering Taiwan is quite a small country, but this temple is considered the most important of all the Matsu temples in Taiwan.

The Grand Matsu Temple of Tainan city is an impressive place; the architecture, statues, incense smell and the colours really open your senses as you walk through the astonishing corridors of this temple.

The temple hides away down a back street which can make it quite hard to find for a tourist who doesn't know about this place, which makes it more pleasant, I didn't see any other foreigners there, only the Taiwanese unlike the other temples not far from this place. The Grand Matsu Temple is one of the holiest and the oldest temple in all of Taiwan, given the length of history that the city of Tainan has been here (oldest city), the buildings of the temple grounds date back to the mid 17th century.

There is another temple that sits right next door to the Matsu temple and that is the 'State Temple of the Martial God' which I admit got very confused about and started wondering around their corridors before later I realised that it wasn't even the Matsu temple, but yet it was still a really interesting place to visit.

As you walk up the steps of the Matsu temple, through the giant gateway of dragons and vibrant colours, you come to a courtyard which is a normal feature in a buddhist temple, in

the courtyard you will see the usual incense bowl that sits infront of the main statue of the deity, it was black and gold and occassionally the smoke from the the incense sticks would spread throughout the courtyard grounds going into your eyes and tickling your nostrils, though it is a pleasant smell.

The statue of Matsu itself sits proudly in front of the courtyard in the main hall, it is a rather large, golden statue with so many decorations around it, as well as flowers of many kinds with gives of this arouma as if you are in a florist shop, on either side of the Matsu statue are the two tall statues of the monsters named 'Qianli Yuan' and 'Xufong Er' that Matsu subdued and converted to do good and help people rather than terrorise them.

Walking behind the main hall and you come to many more rooms containing shrines of other various deities, especially at the back of the main hall. I watched and studied how the buddhist prayed, they would kneel down on a soft pad and put their hands together with a burning incense in between and mutter some words, after some time they would do two or three bows to the deity whilst still holding the incense stick, eventually they would go to the large incense pot out in the courtyard and bow again before finishing by putting the stick in the sand of the bowl, the stick continues to burn after the buddhist has gone.

I really enjoyed my walk around the temple, I learnt more about the buddhism and how devoted people are to Matsu, I could see in the people's eyes how important Matsu is to them as they worship Matsu, though I will never understand, just watching the people brings a pleasant feeling of joy and happiness.

The Dark History of the Temple

Before ‘The Grand Matsu Temple’ had become one of the most sacred and holiest temples in Taiwan, it was once a royal palace for ‘Zheng Chnggong’s’ son ‘Prince Zheng Jing’ who were part of the ‘Ming dynasty’.

In 1664, Zheng Jing commissioned the building for the ‘Prince of Ningjing’. After inviting the young prince to take up residence on the island of Taiwan, but this was the start of some devastating dark events that will later take place in the grounds of the palace.

It was in the main hall where you would find the giant, golden Matsu statue, that the young prince took his own life as well as where his five concubines hanged themselves from a wooden beam, this is something not too many people know about as they wonder around the holy temple, you would never think that in such a religious place, an event like this would happen. Today, the temple gives this happy, pleasant vibe but it just goes to show how places change over time.

Later on, Qing took over Taiwan and the man called ‘General Shi Lang’ took up the residency in the old royal palace, it is believed that he convinced his emperor to convert the palace to become a temple dedicated to Matsu, this turns it to the building we know today, ‘ The Grand Matsu Temple’. It was the first Matsu temple in Taiwan and only those who know the dark history behind the place know why.

Below are pictures of the 'State Temple of the Martial God' as that too was also an interesting and beautiful place to see.