The impasse between the Taitung County Cultural Affairs Bureau and local conservationists over the last temple at Basian Caves (八仙洞) shows no sign of resolution, but the bureau’s boss said the temple would be demolished by force if necessary.
The Taitung County Government in 2014 sued the Chaoyin Temple (潮音寺), accusing it of occupying government land. The Taiwan High Court in February last year ruled that the temple had to remove its structures from the cave by Tuesday last week.
Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Chung Ching-po (鍾青柏) on Tuesday said the conservationists claims that the temple has special historical and cultural merit was rejected by the bureau’s panel of experts and given that the deadline for the temple owners to tear down the structures has passed, the county would seek to demolish the structures if the temple owners do not.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
The two members of the bureau’s evaluation committee do not believe the temple has sufficient merit to qualify it as a cultural heritage site, finding it little more than “a living area with three statutes,” Chung said.
They said the temple lacked the religious tutelage system and it did not have a meaningful link with local culture, he said.
“Calling it ‘a cultural heritage site’ is a ploy by a few local conservationists to delay the Chaoyin Temple’s demolition by the courts, but whether it is a cultural heritage site is not something that a few conservationists can decide on their own,” Chung said.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
The committee ruled out the possibility of additional evaluations because the temple did not meet the standard for even a provisional heritage site, Chung said.
He said the bureau does not want to have to use force to remove the temple because the paperwork for such an action is time-consuming and would take between two and three months to process.
The Basian Caves Multi-cultural Coexistence Alliance — the main group behind the efforts to save the temple — said it does not plan to give up its fight and that the bureau should be tolerant of the temple’s century-long history.
“The Taitung County Government predetermined the results of the evaluation process before it even began by claiming that the only records supporting the temple’s cultural value were oral accounts of local elders. It improperly influenced the evaluation committee,” the alliance said.
“The county government should hold public hearings ... to discuss this issue with the public instead of trying to push through its decision,” the group said.
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