
Songshan Ciyou Temple
Six-story riverside temple to the sea goddess, guarded by stone lions carved in eighteen oh three.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Songshan Ciyou Temple in Taipei opens with a barefoot monk crossing from Quanzhou in the seventeen thirties, a gilded statue of the sea goddess Mazu strapped to his back and no money to his name. You'll hear how he and local villagers spent a decade begging door to door for a temple, and about the eighteen-oh-three stone lions that still flank the entrance, and the nineteen eighty-one fire that gutted the main hall the community rebuilt. Listen for the Taoist chanting drifting through its six floors.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Taipei Tianhou Temple
Qing-era Mazu shrine rebuilt on a former Japanese Buddhist temple site, sharing its altar with both faiths.
Guandu Temple
Cliffside Taoist shrine with an eighty-meter cave tunnel of carved deities overlooking a river.
Lungshan Temple
Historic Buddhist and Taoist temple whose golden Guanyin statue survived a direct WWII bombing untouched.
Qingshui Temple
Buddhist temple whose deity statue is said to lose its nose just before disaster strikes.
Dalongdong Baoan Temple
Historic Taoist temple where rival master craftsmen once carved opposite wings in secret competition.
Songshan Fengtian Temple
Cave-shrine turned sprawling temple complex, its Jade Emperor worship once driven underground by colonial rulers.