By Chen Li-Yu / Staff reporter / County Government
A pilgrimage group of more than 300 people from the Baoshun Temple dedicated to deity Panfu Wang Ye, Shangpu Village, Shishi City, mainland China, traveled across the sea to Kinmen via Mini-Three-Links, for searching for the deity’s roots at the ancestral temple of Dongyue Taishan, Tianpu Village, Jinsha Town. A sacred ceremony was held by the Dongyue Taishan Temple Management Committee to welcome them, where Wu Cheng-Dian, Deputy Kinmen County Magistrate, served as the officiator to celebrate Panfu Wang Ye’s first-time journey home to be reunited with the gods in the ancestral temple after about one or two hundred years away from home. It was a divine rite brimming with an air of festivity.
According to the elders in Tianpu Village, legend has it that Panfu Wang Ye, who was originally enshrined in the Taishan Temple, was moved by Luo Fan Ke (Kinmenese who immigrated to Southeast Asian countries in the mid-19th century) to where they resettled, so that they could continue their worship and be protected. After some time, the idol of Panfu Wang Ye was brought to Lugang, Taiwan for worship, during which signs and wonders occurred. Later, in the Qing dynasty, he was invited by a mainland Chinese businessman to Shangpu for worship. With the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, Panfu Wang Ye recently expressed, through a medium, his desire to return to the Dongyue Temple, Tianpu Village, Kinmen, and thus a magical journey home through time and space was undertaken.
In addition, the Dongyue Taishan Temple Management Committee said that Panfu Wang Ye was relocated in the Qing dynasty from the Dongyue Temple, Jinsha Town, Kinmen County, to Lugang, Taiwan, where it was worshiped by local residents, which was not far from what the elders in Tianpu said. After that, a businessman called Wang Syue-Gu from Shangpu Village went to Taiwan to do business. He often burned incense and paid respects to the deity in admiration. During the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor of the Qing dynasty, he was granted permission to bring Panfu Wang Ye back to mainland China for worship in his home. In the spring of 1924, with the consent of the deity, he built a temple there called Baoshun Temple. From then on, it moved to the temple to look after believers, and attendances at the holy place was soaring. This time, Panfu Wang Ye’s wish to return to the Dongyue Taishan Temple in Kinmen to seek his roots was conveyed by a medium. The Baoshun Temple Management Committee came to Kinmen for consultation many times, and decided to pay a visit to his ancestral temple on the 17th day of the sixth lunar month, and return to mainland China, and on the 20th day of the sixth lunar month, to stage a grand inspection tour and a ritual to celebrate his birthday.
Being away from home, thriving in a foreign land, and longing for the ancestral temple of Dongyue Taishan! More than 300 members of the Shangpu Baoshun Temple Management Committee, divided into two groups, took a passenger ship via Mini-Three-Links from Quanzhou, mainland China. Around 12:00 pm, they guarded the deity to the ancestral temple of Dongyue Taishan and fulfilled his wish of searching for his roots before its birthday. When the pilgrims arrived outside the gate of Tianpu, they were warmly greeted by Chen Rong-Hua, chairman of the Dongyue Taishan Temple Management Committee, who led the elders and residents, amid gongs, drums, gods, flags, and bands, welcoming Panfu Wang Ye for his root-searching journey. Along the way, welcoming music and firecrackers resounded to the skies. They went through the archway and stopped in front of the ancestral temple to celebrate its return home. The whole square was packed with people and Taishan Temple was crowded with worshippers following Panfu Wang Ye to pray for protection and blessing.
The incense offering ceremony was held at 12:30p.m. yesterday, with Deputy Magistrate Wu Cheng-Dian as the officiator, and Jinsha Township's acting mayor Cai Ci-Chao, Director of the Agricultural Research Institute Li Guang-Rong, Director of the Livestock Research Institute Jhuang Cian-Gong, Director of the Animal and Plant Disease Control Center Wun Shuei-Cheng, Chairman of the Dongyue Taishan Temple Management Committee Chen Rong-Hua, and local elders in attendance. Following the ritual, three bows were given, and a horizontal inscribed board and gift money were presented. Wu also shook hands and expressed his congratulations to the followers of the Shangpu Baoshun Temple.
Then, the Shangpu Baoshun Temple also ceremoniously staged an incense offering rite, while Panfu Wang Ye’s believers were holding joss sticks for worship. In addition to praying for blessing and protection, they celebrated his successful trip to the temple. The Dongyue Taishan Temple Management Committee, as the host, also organized a dining event for religious exchanges at Red Dragon Restaurant in Jinhu Township for Baoshun Temple guests and believers to enhance mutual friendship.
Moreover, the Baoshun Temple is located in Shangpu Village, northeast of Shishi City, which is subordinate to Quanzhou City. It used to be the 21st capital outside the south gate of Quanzhou Prefecture. Unlike Taiwan’s Wang Yes, who are mostly derived from Southern Fujian, Panfu Wang Ye, the main deity of the Baoshun Temple, came from Lugang, Taiwan, and his ancestral temple is the Dongyue Taishan Temple in Jinsha Township, Kinmen County. Since Panfu Wang Ye moved to the Baoshun Temple, it became a local divinity in Shangpu Village, dedicated to driving out evil to bring back the good, and advising followers to be good and keep away from hypocrisy. His power reaches far and wide, with a high reputation across space and time. In addition, according to local elders in Shangpu Village, a merchant called Wang Syue-Gu went to Taiwan to do business, and with permission granted from Panfu Wang Ye but without seeking the consent of local believers in Lugang, he took the statue with him aboard. When he was departing from the island, the local faithful caught up with him by boat, and Wang instantly hid Panfu Wang Ye’s statue in a basket. The group got on board and searched, opened the basket and found only a duck in it. After they left, Wang checked the basket to find only the statue. The Baoshun Temple Management Committee said that this legend, on one hand, can prove that the deity originated in Taiwan; on the other hand, it made the followers’ belief in him more deep-seated.
Following the activities, the pilgrimage group spared some time traveling around Kinmen yesterday. Today, they are scheduled to take a passenger ship back to Shangpu via Mini-Three-Links, ending a two-day journey of pilgrimage and root-searching.