Residents of Taichung’s Situn District (西屯) have completed a beautification project for a religious procession held by Wanhe Temple (萬和宮) every three years.
Hede Borough Warden Lin Chih-hsiung (林志雄) said that he brought together area residents to install mosaics and plant flowers in response to a recently built parking lot, which exposed a 40m line of unsightly metal-sheet walls.
The area is of particular religious importance to Situn and to Taichung as a whole, he said.
Photo: CNA
The temple in the city’s Nantun District (南屯) is primarily dedicated to Matsu (媽祖), but one of its statues originally intended for Matsu is believed to host the spirit of Laoer Ma (老二媽), a Qing Dynasty maiden from nearby Situn.
For more than two centuries, the Laoer Ma procession from Nantun to Situn has been a solemn local tradition and a focal point for residents and politicians, including Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), who led the procession in April.
The statute of Laoer Ma is housed at the ancestral hall of Hede Borough (何德) during its stay in the district, but residents said that the parking lot ruined the spirit’s view from her hall.
The mosaic, which portrays the procession, was made with more than 50,000 ceramic tiles and is complemented by a field of Mexican heather and Chinese ixora flowers planted along the wall, he said.
The beautification project will hopefully help keep the procession alive in the hearts of the city’s young people and new residents, he said.
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