Lugu Ritual Paper Incinerator

This ritual paper incinerator stands beside Fu’an Temple (福安宮) on a bend in Yanxi Highway in the Xinliao (新寮) section of Lugu, Nantou. Originally built in 1871 by Qing dynasty gentry of Dapingding (大坪頂), the surrounding upland was the staging area for General Wu Guangliang’s (吳光亮) 1875 construction of the Batongguan Old Trail (八通關古道), and the incinerator is grouped with the surviving stone markers associated with that national monument. The structure was rebuilt by the Nantou County Government in 2001 after sustaining damage from a traffic accident and the 921 Earthquake. Two related Qing dynasty stelae, a notice “lifting the ban on entering the mountains” (入山撤禁告示碑) and a monument “virtue throughout the mountain reaches” (德遍山陬碑), stand alongside it on the temple grounds.