Taiwan Religious Culture Map

Fengshan's Longshan Temple was built in the early years of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing era. According to legend, a Quanzhou immigrant was passing through the area when he stopped to get water from a well, hanging the incense pouch he carried on an adjacent pomegranate tree. At night, the incense pouch glowed with a mysterious light, so people felled the tree and worshiped it as the Buddhist bodhisattva Guanyin (Avalokiteśvara), building a temple to the bodhisattva atop the well. Longshan Temple is currently located by the Qing-era Great East Gate of Fengshan County's New City (today's Fengshan District, Kaohsiung). The building faces north, with a layout consisting of two central structures, a baiting (worship pavilion), and side wings. The central building has maintained its original Qing-era layout, while the side wings were rebuilt in 1987 CE. The main hall is located directly behind the front gate, with the baiting connecting the two to form an uninterrupted space. The front gate is three bays wide, with the central gateway surrounded by protruding side entrances opposite one another, forming a recess in what is referred to as an aoshou gate. The exterior, built with a combination of wood and stone using Qing-era temple construction techniques, has been preserved to this day; it is one of the temple's most distinctive features.