Huatan Baishakeng Wende Temple

A temple to Tudigong (土地公), the Earth God, at the back of the Changhua Plains in Huatan, founded some time after 1761 by settlers from Jinjiang in Quanzhou. It is known for a five-storey tower dedicated to the Five Garrisons (五營), which are usually housed in far smaller structures at the edges of a temple’s territory. The image of Tudigong wears an official’s cap because, by legend, the Daoguang Emperor granted the deity the rank of a Hanlin academician after glimpsing him standing behind the local scholar Zeng Weizhen (曾維楨) at the palace examination in the Qing dynasty. The temple’s Lantern Festival procession through three villages is registered as intangible cultural heritage.