Inception

｜Photo: The Wondrous Temple Expedition ｜

In 2018, we worked on ‘Dining and Bonding with Grandparents,’ an initiative that encouraged seniors to walk out of their homes and enjoy meals with people of their age. From our research, we found that even though it was a meaningful program, most communities lacked the funding to do it more than once a month. To our surprise, Zhongxi Village was the only village that was able to organize group meals twice a month because it received charitable donation from Fude Temple on Dianzai Street. Ms. Huang Shumei from Yonghe district government encouraged us to visit the temple and perhaps do a report to learn more about this ancient temple.  

Earth God temples are very common in Taiwan, it’s because Earth God is the deity who takes care of everything in the community. The most famous Earth God temple in Zhonghe and Yonghe districts is Nanshan Fude Temple, but not a lot of people know about Fude Temple on Dianzai Street, which is only a ten-minute walk from our school! From our interviews with community elderly, we found out that the temple was already more than three hundred years old. Did you know that Nanshan Fude Temple was actually branched out from Fude Temple on Dianzai Street? Did you know that Fude Temple on Dianzai Street was the first temple in Yonghe? Did you know that it was the religious center of the local people? How can a small temple hold so many surprises? After our preliminary discussion at school, we decided to dig deeper to find out more about this amazing temple. How can Fude Temple on Dianzai Street last more than three hundred years? How can it devote such abundant resources into charitable events in the community? We couldn’t wait to find out the answers to those questions.

Source Text: The Wondrous Temple Expedition │ Photos: The Wondrous Temple Expedition