Sanxia Changfu Temple
Main Deities
About
Walk into Sanxia Changfu Temple and don't look up at the statues first — look at the pillars. The birds, flowers, and figures on every stone column were cut by hand, deep enough to slip a finger into. This temple to Qingshui Zushi has been rebuilt since 1947 under the direction of Li Mei-shu, a painter born in Sanxia, who brought the training of Western fine art into a traditional temple and kept at it for decades. He died before the work was finished. That is why Changfu Temple is that rare thing in Taiwan: an old temple still being built, a relay across three generations of craftsmen. It was designated a New Taipei City heritage site in 2018.
History
In 1767, Anxi migrants from Quanzhou settled around Sanxia, Yingge, Shulin, and Daxi and proposed a temple; it was completed two years later, in 1769, enshrining the Qingshui Zushi of their home region. The area was then called Sanjiaoyong, where three rivers meet, and the temple stood at the center of the settlement — a place of worship and a place where migrants settled their affairs. Its transformation came in the twentieth century. In 1947 the painter Li Mei-shu took charge of the rebuilding. He refused to rush; every carving had to be worthy of the temple, and the work stretched across decades. The layered stonework you see today is what that patience left behind.
Visitor Info
Address
No. 1, Changfu St, Sanxia District, New Taipei City
Region
Sanxia District, New Taipei City