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Chaolin Temple

2025-09-10
886-8-7882441
屏東縣潮州鎮通潮一巷4號
Chaolin Temple is dedicated to Marshal Li Nezha of the Central Altar, commonly known as the Crown Prince Lord. It is a joint village temple for Silin Village, Sichun Village, and Lundong Village in Chaozhou Township, Pingtung County. The temple, together with the eastern, western, southern, and northern camps, forms the traditional Minnan settlement’s “five-camp” boundary that protects the villages. Therefore, in addition to its value as a heritage of traditional architectural craftsmanship, Chaolin Temple also embodies the cultural characteristic of using settlement location and spiritual belief to establish boundaries. As a shared center of worship for three villages, it is a rarity in Taiwan and is currently a county-designated monument in Pingtung County. According to legend, the statue of the Crown Prince Lord in Chaolin Temple was brought from mainland China about two hundred years ago. At that time, medical resources were scarce, so the Crown Prince Lord would daily descend via planchette and prescribe herbal remedies to cure the villagers. Because the local residents were extremely poor, they were long unable to build a temple to enshrine him. One day, the Crown Prince Lord possessed a medium and instructed the villagers to collect driftwood along the river between Silin Village and Lundong Village for temple construction; this is how Chaolin Temple came to be built. Both the front and rear halls of Chaolin Temple feature swallowtail ridges. On the front hall ridge are fired-clay ornaments of a fire dragon pearl and carps spouting water; the rear hall ridge displays twin dragons and a gourd in cut-and-paste ceramic work. On the gable walls, the front hall has lion-head cut-and-paste decorations, while the rear hall bears plaster reliefs of the “qin, qi, shu, hua” (music, chess, calligraphy, painting) motif. Above the left and right door hoods, the ridges are adorned with charming jiaozhi pottery of fruits and seafood. Inside the main hall, the central ridge bears a painted phoenix, and at the very center is a fish-shaped taiji symbol—an exceptionally distinctive design.
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