Lianzuo Mountain Guanyin Temple Introduction
Locally known as Guanyin Pavilion, it is now a designated third-level historic site. Since its establishment, the temple has undergone multiple renovations but has maintained its appearance and scale from over 200 years ago, making it a precious cultural asset. In 2013, it was selected by the Ministry of the Interior as one of the "One Hundred Religious Sites in Taiwan," holding significant historical meaning. Lianzuo Mountain stands alone in the Dahan River, its shape resembling a lotus flower emerging from the water, hence its name. In the third year of the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty (1797), it was funded and established for the construction of a Buddhist temple on the mountain rock by Zhong Shangyi and others, dedicated to Avalokiteshvara and the Eighteen Arhats, named Guanyin Temple. By 1904 (Meiji 37), local gentry from Daxi, noticing the temple's risk of collapse, raised funds for major repairs and added a worship pavilion. In 1925 (Taisho 14), further funds were collected for a thorough renovation, and in 1934 (Showa 9), the original worship pavilion was transformed into a hipped roof pavilion, which remains to this day. The architecture of Lianzuo Mountain Guanyin Temple is limited by terrain constraints and cannot develop vertically, thus it is a single-hall temple with five entrances. The roof features a three-river ridge, and in front of the main hall, there is a worship pavilion, which is the temple's largest architectural characteristic, adopting a heavy-eave hipped roof with an octagonal coffered ceiling inside. The cut paper, mud sculptures, wood carvings, stone carvings, and paintings within the temple are all antiquely elegant. To the right side of the temple, in a shaded area of over ten meters, there is the Jing Sheng Pavilion (Xizi Pavilion), also an important ancient structure, named "Kui Xing Tower," built in 1936 (Showa 11). It enshrines Wenquxing Jun, built with red bricks into a three-section pavilion, with couplets inscribed on the upper and middle layers. The pavilion’s stone carvings of dragons and tigers are lifelike, and the cut paper and sculptures are exquisitely detailed. To the right of the temple, there is also the Kui Xing Tower for praying for prosperous literary success, which enshrines Kui Xing from the Big Dipper, a deity protecting scholarship. This tower also serves the function of a calligraphy paper pavilion, with structures combining calligraphy stoves and the temple's flying eaves and tube tiles, adorned with auspicious beast tiles and reliefs, making it quite magnificent. Next to Kui Xing Tower, there is a small pavilion dedicated to the God of Wealth and the Tree God; this small temple appears simple and unadorned, and it is said to have existed even before Guanyin Temple was established, possessing considerable historical significance. Source: Cultural Bureau of the City Government.
