Shenghe Temple is located in the alleys of Yule Street and Shengli Road in Tainan's East District. Although the temple is not large, it contains a rich and diverse collection of national treasure-level craftsman works. (Photo by reporter Wang Junzhong)
Although the "Shenghe Temple" in Tainan East District, adjacent to National Cheng Kung University, is less than half a century old, it has diverse and rich traditional crafts such as clay relief sculptures, cut-and-paste sculptures, and door god paintings. Since the temple occupies state-owned land and is in danger of being demolished, the temple authorities urgently raised more than 1 million yuan in compensation for use and applied to the city government's Cultural Resources Department to list it as a "historic building." After learning about it, this newspaper helped to speak out. The State-owned Property Administration decided to be extrajudicial and withdraw the enforcement (temple demolition order) from the court, allowing Shenghe Palace to preserve its life.
The Shenghe Temple, built in 1980, is the only Taoist temple in the Xizhuwei area of East District Tainan. It is dedicated to Chitose of the Five Prefectures and also enshrines many deities. It has been the place of worship for local residents and Chengdu masters and students for many years. The temple has works by many national treasure-level craftsmen, including clay sculpture reliefs, dragon columns, shearing and glue, and door god paintings. The temple authorities believe that it is a cultural asset with preservation value. In order to save the temple from being demolished, in April this year, they applied to the Tainan City Government for review and preservation as a historical building.
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Xie Zhenghan, the chairman of Shenghe Palace, pointed out that there was a Bingzai Market in the Xizhuwei area in the early years. Market merchants agreed to build a joint venture temple. At that time, believers used state-owned land, obtained the temple's disposal rights and registered the tax registration. Because the believers did not transfer and apply for rent in time after their death (leading to the interruption of the lease), the Tainan Office of the Southern Branch of the National Property Administration actively provided guidance and allowed the temple to regain the disposal rights and change the tax registration. The two parties were originally in the direction of applying for rent.
However, because Shenghe Temple is an unincorporated organization, Hsieh Cheng-han said that the law can only be done by the appointed manager as the external contact window. During the trial of the "return of land" case at the Tainan District Court, the then chairman's health deteriorated and the temple lacked other channels of communication. It failed to pay the more than 1 million user compensation fees required as a prerequisite for rent application before the first-instance judgment, resulting in the loss of the first-instance case. Later, the temple failed to pay the second-instance appeal fees, which resulted in the temple losing the case.
At the beginning of this year, Xie Zhenghan took over as the chairman of Shenghe Palace. He and the believers raised the use compensation fee and applied to the National Property Administration to renew the lease of the land. However, in 2015, the National Property Administration issued an official document stating that "it should be implemented in accordance with the final judgment and will no longer be rented, sold or entrusted for operation." It rejected the temple's application for rent and petitioned the court to force Shenghe Palace to demolish the temple and return the land.
The temple authorities insist that Seiwa Palace has a wealth of national treasure-level crafts that have religious and cultural preservation value, and hope that the temple's religious incense and cultural assets can continue.
In this regard, the Tainan Office of the National Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine stated that senior officials of the National Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine learned that Shenghe Palace was actively applying for cultural heritage review from the Tainan City Government. Considering that cultural heritage investigations often take a long time, senior officials of the National Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine agreed to accept nearly 1.6 million yuan in land use compensation and legal fees from Shenghe Palace.
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Tainan Shenghe Temple 2-2》The Wangye Temple is small and beautiful in the hidden alley, and there are national treasure-level handicrafts everywhere.
Shenghe Temple is located in the alleys of Yule Street and Shengli Road in Tainan's East District. Although the temple is not large, it contains a rich and diverse collection of national treasure-level craftsman works. (Photo by reporter Wang Junzhong)
The fairy tale painting on the Liang Fang banner above the gate of Shenghe Palace in East District, Tainan is the work of Pan Yuexiong, a famous painter who won the National Heritage Award. (Photo by reporter Wang Junzhong)
