Situated along quiet Hami Street immediately west of the Taipei Confucius Temple in Datong District, Dalongdong Baoan Temple greets visitors with the weathered dignity of Tong'an granite and Guanyinshan bluestone shaped over more than two centuries. Crossing the broad forecourt beneath the sweeping swallowtail eaves of the Sanchuan Hall inlaid with Cochin ceramics and cut porcelain, you encounter a pair of guardian stone lions with both male and female mouths smilingly open, along with a pair of octagonal dragon pillars carved in the ninth year of the Jiaqing reign (1804) leading into a Main Hall fragrant with Fuzhou fir and aloeswood incense.
Originating as a modest wooden shrine erected in the seventh year of the Qianlong era (1742) and reconstructed on a monumental scale over twenty-five years between the ninth year of Jiaqing (1804) and the tenth year of Daoguang (1830) by pioneers from Tong'an County in Quanzhou, Fujian, the sanctuary was named Baoan Temple to express the prayer to protect the people of Tong'an in peace. Together with Lungshan Temple of Manka and Bangka Qingshui Temple, it forms the Three Great Temple Gates of Taipei and stands as a landmark of Taiwanese heritage conservation, winning the 2003 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Culture Heritage Conservation before its elevation to a National Monument in 2018.
IThe medical deity Baosheng Dadi (Wu Tao) and the pioneers of Tong'an County
The neighborhood of Dalongdong (大龍峒, pronounced Tōa-lông-pōng in Hokkien) in northern Taipei was originally inhabited by the indigenous Ketagalan people under the name Paronpon, which early Han settlers transliterated as Dalangbeng (大浪泵). During the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, immigrants from Tong'an County (同安縣, under Quanzhou Prefecture in Fujian Province, encompassing parts of modern Xiamen and Zhangzhou) settled this fertile plain near the confluence of the Keelung and Tamsui Rivers. Because the ridge extending from Mount Datun and Yuanshan to the east resembled a great coiling dragon, local Confucian scholars refined the characters from Dalangbeng to Dalongdong (Grotto of the Great Dragon), expressing their aspiration that the land would produce distinguished scholars.
When the early Tong'an pioneers cleared the humid river flats along the Tamsui River, malaria and pestilence were rampant while physicians and herbal medicines were scarce. In the seventh year of the Qianlong reign (1742), community elders sailed back across the Taiwan Strait to their ancestral temple, Baijiao Ciji Temple (白礁慈濟宮) in Baijiao Village, Tong'an County, to welcome a divided spirit of Baosheng Dadi and build a timber shrine in Dalongdong. As the settlement prospered and epidemics subsided, the temple became the spiritual anchor for all Tong'an clans in northern Taiwan.
Within the pantheon of Taoism and Minnan folk religion across Fujian and Taiwan, Baosheng Dadi (保生大帝, affectionately called Dadaogong 大道公 or Perfected Master Wu) is revered as the supreme patron deity of medicine, healing and protection against pestilence. He was a historical Northern Song physician named Wu Tao (吳夲, born on the 15th day of the 3rd lunar month in the 4th year of Taiping Xingguo, 979, in Baijiao Village, Tong'an County, Quanzhou Prefecture). Known from youth for his vegetarian discipline and disinterest in official rank, he devoted his life to studying medical classics, acupuncture, herbal pharmacology and Taoist inner alchemy.
According to Southern Song epigraphic records such as Yang Zhi's Stele of Ciji Temple, Wu Tao treated patients regardless of wealth or status, curing critical illnesses with a single acupuncture needle or simple herbal decoctions. In the third year of the Jingyou reign (1036), while climbing the precipitous cliffs of Mount Qingjiao to gather medicinal herbs for patients, he slipped into a ravine and passed away on the second day of the fifth lunar month at the age of fifty-eight. Grateful villagers immediately erected shrines in his memory at Baijiao and Qingjiao. Across the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, imperial courts bestowed ever higher titles upon him: Emperor Gaozong of Song granted him the title Perfected Master of the Great Way, and in 1425 Emperor Renzong of Ming (after legend recorded that Wu Tao's spirit miraculously cured Empress Wen's breast ailment) conferred the supreme imperial title Imperial Censor of the Golden Gate of Vast Heaven, Compassionate and Miraculous True Lord of the Wondrous Way, Long-Lived Emperor Who Protects Life (Baosheng Dadi).
Inside the Main Hall of Dalongdong Baoan Temple sit three historic statues of Baosheng Dadi tied to the settlement history of the Tong'an community: the First Patriarch (Laozu, the founding statue brought through the Tamsui estuary during the Qianlong era), the Second Patriarch (Erzu), and the Third Patriarch (Sanzu, the large central presiding statue crafted with articulated wooden limbs in the soft-bodied statue tradition so it can be dressed in ceremonial robes). Flanking the main altar are four Guardian Marshals (Marshals Wen and Gao on the left, Marshals Kang and Zhao on the right), along with the Thirty-Six Official Generals (Sanshiliu Guanjiang), carved in wood with raised lacquer-thread decoration (qixian mudiao) in the ninth year of Daoguang (1829) by the Quanzhou master sculptor Hsu Yen (許嚴).
The secondary halls of Baoan Temple embody the synthesis of the Three Teachings and traditional agricultural and medical beliefs. The eastern Bell Tower wing enshrines Tianshang Shengmu (Mazu), the Earth God and the Tiger General, while the western Drum Tower wing enshrines Zhusheng Niangniang (the goddess of childbirth), Lady Chitou and the Twelve Nursemaids (Shier Pojie). In the Rear Hall (Shennong Hall), the central altar honors Shennong Dadi (the Divine Farmer and progenitor of agriculture and herbal medicine, depicted in archaic form clad in a leaf skirt holding ears of grain), flanked by Confucius, Guansheng Dijun, Xuantian Shangdi and the Bao'en Hall of ancestral benefactors. In the late twentieth century, a four-story rear building was added to house the Great Hero Treasure Hall on the third floor (enshrining the Three Treasure Buddhas, Manjushri and Samantabhadra) and the Lingxiao Treasure Hall on the fourth floor (enshrining the Jade Emperor, the Three Officials, Doumu Yuanjun and the Sixty Tai Sui Star Lords).
A treasured medical heritage preserved at Baoan Temple is its collection of medical divination slips (yaoqian) attributed to Baosheng Dadi, comprising 120 prescriptions for internal medicine, 26 for pediatrics and 36 for external medicine, totaling 182 herbal formulas drawn from classical texts such as Zhang Zhongjing's Treatise on Cold Damage (Shanghan Lun) and Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Coffer. In 1995 and 1996, the temple board invited Professor Lu Zhaolin of the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine to annotate every single prescription with its classical source, therapeutic properties and indications, while voluntarily removing any traditional ingredients derived from endangered wildlife in support of international conservation.
IIOver two hundred and eighty years of history and the UNESCO-awarded restoration
The history of Dalongdong Baoan Temple is intertwined with the creation of the old Forty-Four Shops commercial street, the famous 1917 competitive carpentry reconstruction, and the seven-year scientific restoration (1995 to 2002) that made the sanctuary a benchmark for heritage conservation across the Asia-Pacific region.
- 1742Founding of the wooden shrine to Baosheng Dadi in DalangbengIn the 7th year of Qianlong (1742), pioneers from Tong'an County, Quanzhou, welcomed an incense offshoot of Baosheng Dadi from Baijiao Ciji Temple across the Taiwan Strait and built an initial wooden shrine in Dalangbeng (Dalongdong) to pray for protection against epidemics.
- 1802 - 1830Building of the Forty-Four Shops and the grand stone-and-timber templeAfter merchant Wang Chih-chi and 21 households built the Forty-Four Shops commercial street in 1802, merchants launched a fundraising campaign in Jiaqing 9 and 10 (1804 to 1805) to construct the three-hall courtyard complex at the street's eastern gate, carving the octagonal dragon columns in 1804 and completing the temple in Daoguang 10 (1830).
- 1868 - 1873 and 1888Major restorations during the Tongzhi and Guangxu reignsFrom Tongzhi 7 to 12 (1868 to 1873), Abbot Chih-ching and local gentry Chen Wei-ching and Tsai Pi-chi led the first large-scale restoration. In Guangxu 14 (1888), gentry leader Chang Kuo-yu funded structural and roof repairs.
- 1917 - 1919Competitive carpentry reconstruction by Chen Ying-pin and Kuo TaCommunity leaders Shen Chu and Cheng Wan-yi raised 32,000 yen for a comprehensive rebuilding, inviting master carpenters Chen Ying-pin (Zhangzhou school) and Kuo Ta (Quanzhou school) to divide the central axis east and west in a competitive build (duichang zuo), while holding an island-wide couplet competition.
- 1966 - 1973Relocation of postwar occupants and Pan Li-shui's 1973 muralsAfter assisting more than 200 postwar military families who had sheltered inside the courtyard to relocate in 1966, the board restored the halls and in 1973 commissioned master painter Pan Li-shui (1914 to 1995) to paint seven monumental corridor murals and the Door Gods.
- 1985 and 1995 - 2002Second-Class Historic Site and seven-year self-funded scientific restorationDesignated a Second-Class Historic Site in 1985, the temple board independently raised NT$260 million to carry out a meticulous seven-year restoration from 1995 to 2002 under the principle of restoring the old as it was, combining traditional glutinous-rice mortar with modern non-destructive testing.
- 2003 and 12 Nov 2018UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award and elevation to National MonumentIn 2003, Baoan Temple received the Honourable Mention in the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation. On 12 November 2018, Taiwan's Ministry of Culture officially elevated Dalongdong Baoan Temple to a National Monument.
In the history of architectural conservation in Taiwan, the 1995 to 2002 restoration of Dalongdong Baoan Temple stands as a landmark achievement. Rather than relying on government appropriations or lowest-bid contractors who often marred historic temples with Portland cement and synthetic paints, the temple board under Vice Chairman (now Chairman) Liao Wu-chih (廖武治) financed the entire NT$260 million budget from devotees' donations. When inspections in 1996 revealed that half of the main roof beams of the Sanchuan Hall had been hollowed out by termites, the temple brought in Japanese specialists to install Taiwan's first underground anti-termite biological shield system.
To uphold the strict standard of restoring the old as the old (zhengjiu rujiu), delegates traveled to Fujian to source natural Fuzhou fir, Quanzhou granite and Jinjiang red brick, while requiring rooftop ceramic artisans to bind cut-porcelain mosaics using traditional lime mortar mixed with glutinous rice paste and brown sugar syrup rather than modern acrylics. All electrical wiring, water pipes, air conditioning and fire-suppression lines were buried beneath the stone paving so that no modern conduits intruded upon the historic timberwork. This dedication earned Baoan Temple the 2003 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award.
IIICompetitive carpentry of Chen Ying-pin and Kuo Ta, and Pan Li-shui's murals
Covering more than 3,000 ping (approximately 10,000 square meters including its southern garden), Dalongdong Baoan Temple is laid out in a three-hall Hui-character courtyard (三殿回字型): the Sanchuan Front Hall, the Main Hall and the Rear Hall are linked along the east and west flanks by side wings enclosing a central courtyard in the square shape of the character Hui (回), backed by the four-story rear building. In contrast to earlier eighteenth-century temples built exclusively with pale mainland granite, Baoan Temple combines bluestone from Tong'an with Guanyinshan andesite quarried in northern Taiwan, lending the complex a deep, dignified slate-gray tone.
The most celebrated architectural feature of Baoan Temple is the competitive build (對場作, duichang zuo) executed during the 1917 to 1919 reconstruction. Taking the north-south centerline of the temple as their boundary, the entire eastern half (the left side from the deity's perspective, or Azure Dragon side) was entrusted to master carpenter Chen Ying-pin (陳應彬, 1864 to 1944) of the Zhangzhou school, while the entire western half (the right or White Tiger side) was built by master carpenter Kuo Ta (郭塔) of the Quanzhou school. From the interlocking dougong brackets and carved beams of the Sanchuan Hall to the column layouts of the Bell and Drum Towers, the east and west halves match in overall height and span while diverging dramatically in structural intricacy and sculptural style.
The grand front facade spans eleven bays in total (five central bays of the Sanchuan Hall flanked by three-bay Dragon and Tiger Gates on each side). Guarding the central portal are a pair of 1804 stone lions uniquely carved with both the male and female mouths open, alongside a pair of octagonal bluestone dragon columns dated to the 9th year of Jiaqing (1804), the oldest surviving stone carvings in the temple.
Looking up beneath the Sanchuan Hall, the eastern bays built by Chen Ying-pin and the western bays built by Kuo Ta display distinct bracket tiers and woodcarving motifs. After judges favored Chen's work, Kuo Ta discreetly carved two pointed proverbs into the western beams: A true master craftsman needs no patched joints (Hao gongshou bu bujie) and The false lion defeats the true lion (Jiasi po zhenshi).
Another famous trace of the 1917 competition appears on the Eight Immortals beam carving of the Main Hall porch: originally the four-character phrase Ba Xian Nao Dong Hai (Eight Immortals Stirring Up the Eastern Sea) was to be split between the two sides. Kuo Ta finished the western half first and carved Nao Dong Hai, but Chen Ying-pin on the eastern half felt his sculpted figures needed no labels and left the characters off, leaving only Nao Dong Hai visible today.
Crowned with a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof, the Main Hall features vibrant Cochin ware (Jiaozhi pottery) friezes along the wall cornices created in competitive fashion by master Hung Kun-fu on the east and his disciple Chen Tien-chi on the west. Inside stand the Thirty-Six Official Generals carved in 1829 by Quanzhou master Hsu Yen.
Adorning the outer walls of the Main Hall corridor are seven masterwork murals painted in the spring of 1973 by Taiwan's foremost traditional temple artist, Pan Li-shui (1914 to 1995), depicting Hanshan and Shide, Zhong Kui Welcoming His Sister, Hua Mulan Joining the Army, the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, Three Heroes Battling Lü Bu, the Duke of Zhou Establishing Rites, and Three Laughs at Tiger Brook.
Standing in the courtyard before the Rear Hall are two hexagonal brick furnaces for respectfully burning paper bearing written characters. These reconstructed furnaces commemorate the Xianfeng era (mid-19th century), when the renowned Dalongdong juren scholar Chen Wei-ying founded the Shuren Academy inside Baoan Temple.
Among the works executed by master painter Pan Li-shui at Baoan Temple, the central rear mural of the laughing Chan eccentrics Hanshan and Shide and the four pairs of towering Door Gods (Shentu and Yulei, Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong, alongside eunuch and court-lady attendants) on the Sanchuan Hall portals are widely regarded by art historians as the pinnacle of his career. Readers interested in comparing major Minnan temples dedicated to Mazu and Baosheng Dadi may also consult our entries on Lukang Mazu Temple in Changhua and the Ôn Lăng Assembly Hall of the Quanzhou community in Ho Chi Minh City.
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
Traditional Taoist and Minnan temples built by Quanzhou and Zhangzhou settlers in Taiwan consistently placed great emphasis on tracing the dragon vein, locating the node, and orienting the halls to gather water. Indeed, the very place name Dalongdong (Grotto of the Great Dragon) grew out of early nineteenth-century geomantic readings of this northern Taipei plain. The section below analyzes the site's topography through the library's traditional feng shui perspective.
In terms of macro-topography and the dragon vein (long mạch), Dalongdong Baoan Temple stands at the verified coordinates of 25.07317° N, 121.51556° E near the northern edge of the Taipei Basin floor, just east of the peninsula where the Keelung River flowing from the east meets the Tamsui River flowing from the south. In classical local gazetteers of Datong District, the mountain spur descending southwestward from the Datun Volcano Group and Mount Yuanshan is described as a great dragon (Dalong) advancing toward the river confluence. Both Baoan Temple and the adjacent Taipei Confucius Temple sit directly upon the head and chest of this terrestrial dragon (traditionally termed the Dragon Head Node), while the converging Keelung and Tamsui Rivers wrap around the northern and western perimeter like a jade belt of water that locks in vital energy.
As for the facing and the bright hall (minh đường), all three principal halls of Baoan Temple sit in the north and face south (specifically sitting on Zi and facing Wu with a slight Gui-Ding inclination, approximately 182 degrees due south). Behind the sanctuary to the north rises the four-story rear building housing the Lingxiao Treasure Hall, acting as a solid artificial rear backing (hậu chẩm) on the Black Tortoise side, while the front facade opens onto Hami Street and a landscaped park of more than 1,000 ping to the south. Within this southern park (the outer bright hall), the temple constructed a large lotus pond crossed by a swastika-plan bridge and centered on a coiling Golden Dragon spouting water, visually echoing the name Dalongdong while providing standing water that gathers qi in front of the Sanchuan Hall. Regarding the Azure Dragon on the left and White Tiger on the right, immediately to the east (the left or Azure Dragon flank) stands the solemn Taipei Confucius Temple lending literary nobility, while to the southwest (the right or White Tiger flank) stretched the historic Forty-Four Shops merchant street, uniting scholarly honor on the left with commercial vitality on the right.
VBaosheng Cultural Festival, Release of the Fire Lion, and Water Wheel salvation rite
Matching its National Monument architecture, the temple's annual Baosheng Cultural Festival celebrating the birthday of Baosheng Dadi (the 15th day of the 3rd lunar month) was officially registered in 2021 as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Taipei City, keeping alive two centuries of Tong'an ritual traditions.
| Lunar date | Festival or ritual | Key traditional customs and performances |
|---|---|---|
| 5th to 28th day of the 3rd month | Clan-sponsored Opera Performances (Jiaxing Xi) during the Baosheng Festival | Major Tong'an surname clans (traditionally opening with the Chang clan and closing with the Wu clan, which shares Baosheng Dadi's surname) take daily turns sponsoring Taiwanese opera and Beiguan troupes on the forecourt stage. |
| 14th day of the 3rd month | Palankeen Procession of the 11 Lishi Guilds and Release of the Fire Lion (Fang Huoshi) | By day, eleven historic palanquin guilds (Lishi Hui) and folk troupes parade through Dalongdong and Dadaocheng, and at night a towering bamboo-and-paper Fire Lion packed with tens of thousands of beehive firecrackers is ignited in the courtyard to ward off epidemics. |
| 15th day of the 3rd month | Grand Three-Offering Ceremony (Sanxianli) for Baosheng Dadi's Birthday | A solemn classical Confucian-Taoist Three-Offering sacrifice accompanied by choral hymns, ritual eulogies and ceremonial drums. |
| 26th day of the 4th month | Birthday Procession of Shennong Dadi (Divine Farmer) | Palanquins of Shennong Dadi and Baosheng Dadi process through the traditional herbal medicine quarter of Dihua Street, Dadaocheng and Dalongdong to bless harvests and apothecaries. |
| 11th to 15th day of the 7th month | Zhongyuan Ullambana Assembly and Turning the Water Wheels (Qian Shuizang) | Following the raising of 50-foot spirit-summoning bamboo poles on 12/7, on 14/7 forty-nine revolving cylindrical bamboo-and-paper wheels (red Blood Wheels and white Water Wheels) are spun in the courtyard as Taoist priests chant to liberate souls who died by drowning or childbirth. |
| 6th to 12th day of the 12th month | Year-end Emperor Liang Jeweled Repentance Dharma Assembly | Seven days of chanting the Emperor Liang Repentance Sutra in the third-floor Great Hero Treasure Hall to give thanks and pray for peace in the coming year. |
The Release of the Fire Lion (放火獅, Fang Huoshi) on the night of the fourteenth day of the third lunar month is one of Taipei's most thrilling ritual spectacles: crafted by registered paper-art master Li Ching-jung from bamboo strips and colored paper, the two-meter-tall lion is loaded with tens of thousands of upward-shooting beehive rockets. Because Dalongdong lies directly beneath the approach path of Taipei Songshan Airport, every year the temple coordinates in advance with Songshan air traffic control to clear incoming flights for a thirty-minute window while the Fire Lion blazes into the night sky to drive away pestilence.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- No. 61, Hami Street, Bao'an Village, Datong District, Taipei City 103, Taiwan (臺北市大同區保安里哈密街61號)
- Getting there
- Located at No. 61, Hami Street, Datong District, Taipei City (immediately adjacent to the Taipei Confucius Temple). Take the Taipei Metro Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) to Yuanshan Station (R14), leave via Exit 2, and walk west along Lane 96, Kulun Street to Hami Street for about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Coordinates
- 25.07317, 121.51556
When visiting Dalongdong Baoan Temple, please enter through the right-hand portal of the Sanchuan Hall (the eastern Dragon Gate as seen facing the facade) and exit through the left-hand portal (the western Tiger Gate). While admiring Pan Li-shui's 1973 murals along the Main Hall corridor and the 1917 competitive woodcarvings of Chen Ying-pin and Kuo Ta, please refrain from touching painted or carved surfaces and avoid using camera flash on the mineral-pigment wall paintings.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
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?Quick Questions
Who is the principal deity of Dalongdong Baoan Temple and what does the name Baoan mean?
The temple's principal deity is Baosheng Dadi (popularly known as Dadaogong), the historical Northern Song physician Wu Tao (979 to 1036) from Tong'an County, Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian. The name Baoan (Protecting Peace) was chosen by early immigrants from Tong'an County to express the wish to protect the people of Tong'an in peace and health.
What is the competitive carpentry (duichang zuo) inside Baoan Temple?
During the 1917 to 1919 reconstruction, the temple invited two rival master carpenters, Chen Ying-pin of the Zhangzhou school and Kuo Ta of the Quanzhou school, to divide the temple down its central north-south axis: Chen built the eastern half and Kuo built the western half. Visitors standing in the courtyard can directly compare two distinct styles of brackets, dragon carvings and beam reliefs within the same building.
Why did Dalongdong Baoan Temple win a UNESCO heritage award in 2003?
Between 1995 and 2002, the temple board independently raised NT$260 million from devotees to conduct a scientific seven-year restoration under the principle of restoring the old as it was, using natural Fuzhou fir, traditional glutinous-rice lime mortar and concealed underground utilities. This exemplary project earned the 2003 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Culture Heritage Conservation.
Who painted the famous murals along the Main Hall corridors?
The seven monumental wall paintings surrounding the Main Hall corridor and the towering Door Gods on the Sanchuan Hall were painted in 1973 by Taiwan's foremost traditional temple painter, Pan Li-shui (1914 to 1995). His most celebrated works here include Hanshan and Shide, Hua Mulan Joining the Army, and Zhong Kui Welcoming His Sister.
When does the Release of the Fire Lion take place at Baoan Temple?
The Release of the Fire Lion (Fang Huoshi) takes place on the night of the 14th day of the 3rd lunar month (the eve of Baosheng Dadi's birthday on 15/3) during the annual Baosheng Cultural Festival. A giant bamboo-and-paper lion packed with tens of thousands of beehive rockets is ignited in the forecourt to drive away pestilence and pray for community well-being.