Linbian Cizhen Temple

A small shrine next to Linbian High School (林邊國中) in Linbian dedicated to Pan Guniang (潘姑娘), an unidentified woman rumored to have been a Dutch missionary or military physician, a Makatao shaman, or even the wife of Tudigong, the God of Land. Its origins are shrouded in legend but this area was once the heart of the former Makatao settlement of Fangsuo Village (放索社). At some point in the Japanese colonial era locals built an earthen altar and planted a bishop wood tree, Bischofia javanica, at the site. The current shrine was assembled in 1951 from gathered bones wrapped in red silk, rebuilt in concrete in 1984, and raised against flooding in 1997.