Dadaocheng Cisheng TemplePost date：2016-11-22
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Dadaocheng Cisheng Temple, also known as Dadaocheng Matsu Temple, is dedicated to Taiwan’s most important patron saint of the people – Matsu; for the last 100 years, the temple has been the local center of belief. Chuang Yungming, an expert in Taiwan cultural history, explains the origin of the temple as follows: “The so-called “guild” at that time would work hard in trade circles that involved traveling the cross-Strait area or to Indochina, and on north to Japan, and they needed the help of a maritime goddess, so they established the Matsu temple.”
According to legend, the Matsu statue of Cisheng Temple was dedicated as early as 1853 in Monga (Wanhua). Later, in 1864, it was moved to Dadaocheng. “The first street in Dadaocheng at that time was Dihua Street. Many people actually may not know this, but in the past, there was a Matsu Temple at the intersection of today’s Minsheng West Road and Dihua Street, and that was today’s Cisheng Temple. Around 1900, for urban planning, the Japanese tore down Cisheng Temple and rebuilt it at this location.” In 1916, Cisheng Temple formally moved to its current location on Yanping North Road, Section 2. Now, Cisheng Temple, Taipei Xia-Hai City god Temple, and Taipei’s Fazhugong Temple are known as the three major temples of Dadaocheng.
The Cisheng Temple is a rural courtyard-style building, with the main hall and front hall in the middle; protective dragons are on all sides and a surrounding outer wall forms a square. On the 23rd day of the third month on the lunar calendar, Matsu’s birthday, there is a deafening sound of gongs and drums in front of the temple and it is packed with lively crowds that come to visit.
The open square in front of Cisheng Temple is lined with a great many vendors selling traditional snacks. Each stand sells cuisine that is memorable to old-timers in Taipei. Choosing a bench under a banyan tree, you can eat hot squid, sword shrimp and crab, along with braised pork on rice, pork rib soup, four-tonics (Si Shen) soup, salty porridge and other local cuisine, while watching the incense smoke hanging in the air in Cisheng Temple – it’s a beautifully quiet time that can be enjoyed by ordinary people, and will absolutely leave you with sweet memories!
According to legend, the Matsu statue of Cisheng Temple was dedicated as early as 1853 in Monga (Wanhua). Later, in 1864, it was moved to Dadaocheng. “The first street in Dadaocheng at that time was Dihua Street. Many people actually may not know this, but in the past, there was a Matsu Temple at the intersection of today’s Minsheng West Road and Dihua Street, and that was today’s Cisheng Temple. Around 1900, for urban planning, the Japanese tore down Cisheng Temple and rebuilt it at this location.” In 1916, Cisheng Temple formally moved to its current location on Yanping North Road, Section 2. Now, Cisheng Temple, Taipei Xia-Hai City god Temple, and Taipei’s Fazhugong Temple are known as the three major temples of Dadaocheng.
The Cisheng Temple is a rural courtyard-style building, with the main hall and front hall in the middle; protective dragons are on all sides and a surrounding outer wall forms a square. On the 23rd day of the third month on the lunar calendar, Matsu’s birthday, there is a deafening sound of gongs and drums in front of the temple and it is packed with lively crowds that come to visit.
The open square in front of Cisheng Temple is lined with a great many vendors selling traditional snacks. Each stand sells cuisine that is memorable to old-timers in Taipei. Choosing a bench under a banyan tree, you can eat hot squid, sword shrimp and crab, along with braised pork on rice, pork rib soup, four-tonics (Si Shen) soup, salty porridge and other local cuisine, while watching the incense smoke hanging in the air in Cisheng Temple – it’s a beautifully quiet time that can be enjoyed by ordinary people, and will absolutely leave you with sweet memories!
