A zhaitang (齋堂), or fasting hall, of the Xiantian (先天) branch of the Zhaijiao (齋教) folk religion, established in Tainan in 1861 by Huang Changcheng (黃昌成). It is generally recognized as the earliest Xiantian hall in Taiwan. The original site, near today’s Tainan Hospital (臺南醫院), was expropriated by the Japanese colonial authorities in 1896 to make way for the hospital, and believers carefully dismantled the structure and reassembled it on the current site using its original timbers and stonework. Damaged by Allied bombing in World War 2 and restored in 1946 and again in 1998, it is now recognized as a municipal monument but is not generally open to the public.
Map
Heritage Status
- Municipal Monument (直轄市定古蹟)
Links
- Wikipedia in Chinese (中文維基百科)
- Cultural Assets Bureau (文化部文化資產局)
Themes
- Temple Culture in Taiwan (台灣的寺廟文化)
- Qing Dynasty Era Taiwan (清治時期台灣)
- World War 2 History in Taiwan (台灣第二次世界大戰歷史)
- Zhaijiao in Taiwan (台灣齋教)
Connections
- Tainan Zexian Hall (臺南擇賢堂)
Nearby Locations
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Author
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I am a web application developer, photojournalist, urban explorer, and history enthusiast passionate about the open web and documenting my experiences on this planet. This project was founded in the early 2010s and has evolved into a sort of personal Wikipedia of places that interest me (and often the photographs I’ve taken there). I’m originally from Toronto, Canada, but spend most of my time residing in Taiwan.