Taiwan in Time: Warding off disease for 165 years
Qingshan Temple’s annual festivities have
waxed and waned over the past century, but last weekend’s all-night procession came under fire
for noise pollution
By Han Cheung / Staff reporter
Dec. 14 to Dec. 20
A group of fishermen set sail from Taiwan in 1854 to protect today’s Wanhua District (萬華) from a devastating pandemic by retrieving a deity, known as Qingshanwang (青山王, Green Mountain King), from their ancestral home of Huian County (惠安) in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province. Upon returning to Wanhua, they hauled it inland, but only made it a little way because the effigy suddenly became too heavy to move. Worshippers saw it as a sign and built the first iteration of Qingshan Temple (青山宮).