Bangka Lungshan Temple

Before you is Lungshan Temple, the spiritual heart of Bangka. It was built between 1738 and 1740 by migrants from three counties of Quanzhou and is dedicated above all to Guanyin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, though it is home to many other deities.

1The pouch that glowed

According to tradition, a traveller hung a small pouch of incense from the Longshan temple of his homeland on a bamboo stem and forgot it. At night, locals saw it glowing and began to worship it.

That is how legend explains why the temple was built here. What is documented is that it was rebuilt several times: after an earthquake in 1815, after a typhoon in 1867 and, between 1919 and 1924, by master builder Wang Yi-shun, who gave it its present appearance.

2A bomb and a statue

At the end of May 1945, an Allied air raid destroyed the main hall. It is said that the image of Guanyin was found unharmed in the rubble, a story that only deepened people's devotion. The hall was rebuilt between 1953 and 1959.

3How to ask the gods

Watch the worshippers dropping two red crescent-shaped wooden blocks on the floor: these are the jiaobei. If one lands flat side up and the other curved side up, the answer is «yes». If both show the flat side, the god is laughing and you must ask again; if both show the curved side, the answer is «no». Many repeat the question until they get three «yes» answers in a row.

4What to look for

• The bronze dragon columns at the entrance, the first of their kind in Taiwan.
• The roofs, covered in figures of coloured ceramic and glass.
• The jiaobei blocks clattering on the floor before the altars.