The soaring gold price might seem like a gift from the gods for the temples that used the precious metal to build giant statues of deities years ago.
In 2003, Jenn Lann Temple (鎮瀾宮) in Dajia Township (大甲), Taichung County, built a 267kg statue of the goddess Matsu — arguably the largest in Taiwan.
The Chinese-language United Daily News estimated the statue’s value at NT$340 million (US$15.5 million) at the current price of gold — 180 percent of the original value.
The refined artwork, showed in the flowing gown and hair, adds to the value, the newspaper said.
Gold struck an all-time high close to US$1,283 a troy ounce (31.1g) yesterday in London after chalking up a series of records this week. Gold hit US$1,282.97 on the London Bullion Market before easing slightly to stand at US$1,280.95.
Earlier in Hong Kong, gold closed at US$1,281.50 to US$1,282.50 an ounce, after breaking through the US$1,280 barrier as traders snapped up the safe-haven asset.
Taiwanese have traditionally valued gold and many have presented solid gold plates to temples as the highest sign of worship.
Using the gold donations, at least dozens of Buddhist and Taoist temples have built deities of various sizes.
Temples have reinforced security around their gold statues against possible theft, the paper said.
However, Yilan County’s Nan Tien Temple (南天宮) said it wasn’t worried about losing its 203kg Matsu statue built 16 years ago.
“One would have difficulty hoisting the heavy statue even with a crane,” temple official Chen Cheng-nan (陳正男) said.
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