Bao'an Temple Introduction
Located next to the Yehliu Fishing Port in Wanli District, Baosheng Temple is dedicated to the "Kaizhang Shengwang," the most revered deity among local fishermen and a symbol of their spiritual support. According to elder testimonies, the deity’s origin traces back to when the ancestors accidentally discovered a ship at sea carrying materials for temple construction and a statue of the deity. The community sought a place for the statue and chose the current site of Baosheng Temple. The original temple was smaller and primarily made of stone, with materials brought from overseas. Many of these have since been lost after several renovations and expansions, and today only some stone pedestals and bases remain for future generations to remember the past. The faith in the guardian deity "Kaizhang Shengwang" in the Wanli area has a long history. The "Yehliu Deity Cleansing Port Cultural Festival," held on the fifteenth day of the lunar new year, has over a hundred years of history and is one of the few registered as an intangible cultural asset under folk customs. It is a festival comparable to the celebrations of "Northern Sky Lanterns and Southern Bee Firecrackers"; its most significant feature is "coming from the water, going through fire." The ceremony includes four main activities: "Cleansing the Sea Patrol," "Bountiful Harvest," "Deity Cleansing the Port," and "Deity Passing Through Fire," which constitutes a unique century-old traditional religious ritual in Taiwan.
