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◎ Institutions: Kaohsiung Guang Ji Temple
◎ Address:No.217, Jhung Shan Second Road, Kaohsiung
◎ TEL: (07)333-5063 334-1835
◎ Mainly worship: Bao Sheng Da Di
◎ Also worship: Jhung Tan Yuan Shai, Chi Fu Guan Yin, Guang Yin Fo Zu, Tian Shang Shenn Mu, Jhu
Sheng Niang Niang, Fu De Jheng Shen, Yu Huang Shang Di,San Gong Da Di, Nan Do Sing Jun, and Bei
Do Sing Jun.
◎ Year: Begginning of Cing Dynasty
◎ Bless our people as bright as the sun and the moon. Loyal to the leader of the country
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| Kaohsiung in its early days, Ci Jin was the most prosperous and Si Shih Jia was second. Some said that there was a theater group and a lion dance group in the village. Whenever there was a ceremony or a festival held in the temple, Si Shih Jia got its name from people hiring the lion and dragon dance groups from the village whenever there was a ceremony or a festival held in temples. People said that in Kaohsiung when there was a ceremony among thirteen villages, Si Shih Jia Sung Jiang Jhen also led the parade. Since the lion dance group is superior to(the word “Jia” means “the best”.) the others, Guang Ji Temple was not only the center of their belief, but also the origin of Si Shih Jia village. Guang Ji Temple was built in 1741. The main worshiping god is Bao Sheng Da Di. The statue was originated in Chang Tai County, Jhang Jhou Fu, Fu Jian Province and ______ by the ancestors of the Dong family. In the very beginning, the temple was built by bamboo and grass. In 1760, Dong Da Jhang donated the land and gather money from the locates to rebuild the temole. From then on, they started to worship Jhung Tan Yuan Shuai and Chi Fu Cian Suei.In 1889, Chen Sian remoderated the temple. After the retrocession of Taiwan, Guang Ji Temple had its own committee. In 1968, the committee registered as an institution to make the management of the temple better and this made even more people come to worship. In 1970, because part of the temple was on the planned site of Chung Shan Second Road, the temple was moved and rebuilt at the location today. Now the temple is a two-story palace-like building with lots of beautiful and delicate carvings. The dragon columns outside the temples are magnificent.
Inside the temple, the columns that were donated by the devotees made the interior imperial and awesome. Outside the temple, as other temples do, there is a grand three-legged incense burner with two dragons carved on it. Because of the recent rebuild, there’s scarcely any historic things left from the older temple but the new one still kept two horizontal inscribed boards from Cing Dynasty. Outside the new temple, there’s a square where there are lots of political and cultural activities held. Children play in the square too. Bao Sheng Da Di, Jhung Tan Yuan Shuai and Chih Fu Cian Suei that are worshipped in the temple showed their power to their believers. Here are two examples:
1. During the rebuilding, there was a moulding worker who fell from the top floor, which is equivalent to 4 stories high. At that time, there were bricks and nails all over the floor. However, when the worker fell, he somehow fell farther than where he was bound to and onto a pile of sand. He only had some mild scratches. The witnesses all were amazed by this and said that Bao Sheng Da Di protected the worker from getting hurt.
2. At the time when it started to get the foundation ready for building the temple, the workers needed to cut a 13-meter-tall beefwood tree. When the tree fell, a motorcyclist passed by and it fell on top of him. The public at the scene were shocked and all thought the motorcyclist would be either seriously wounded or dead. It turned out that the motorcyclist was in the fork of the branches, so the motorcyclist was safe and sound. People at the site all thought that the gods must have had protected him.
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