Tue, Nov 15, 2022 page3

• Temple artist keeps tradition alive at age 80

  GEOPOLITICS OF ART: In the 1960s and 1970s, Pan painted for the US Navy, but when the US military left, he decided to join his father and start painting temples

  • By Lee Hui-ting and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  Third-generation temple artist Pan Yueh-hsiung (潘岳雄) has for decades strived to preserve traditional religious art through his work on some of the nation’s most prominent temples and by teaching young artists — and at 80, he has no plans to stop.

  “I do not think about retiring at all. I can still paint, climb the scaffolding and teach. As long as I can do it, I will not quit,” said Pan, who earlier this year worked on murals at Tainan’s Sishu Wanhuang Temple (喜樹萬皇宮).

  Last month, he won this year’s Tainan Cultural Award from the Tainan Cultural Affairs Bureau for his efforts to keep traditional temple art alive.

  

  Pan Yueh-hsiung, the winner of this year’s Tainan Cultural Award, works on temple art in an undated photograph.

  Photo: Lee Hui-ting, Taipei Times

  In 2003, he won the 10th annual Global Chinese Culture and Arts Award from the Junior Chamber International Taiwan. In 2013, he was registered with the Tainan City Government as a paintings conservator, and last year he received an outstanding citizen award from the city.

  Pan, who said he learned about temple art from his father and grandfather, has worked on many temples in Tainan, including the Guandi (關帝廳), Wudi (五帝廟), Wufei (五妃廟), Fengshen (風神廟) and Fahua (法華寺) temples.

  “I would help my father paint beams and pillars at the temple when I was in my teens, and so I was proficient with that by the time I graduated high school,” he said.

  

  Tientan Temple, the first temple that Pan Yueh-hsiung, his grandfather and father painted, is pictured in an undated photograph.

  Photo: Lee Hui-ting, Taipei Times

  He later worked as a painter for the US Navy at its postal exchange and commissary between 1966 and 1977.

  “That was in my early 20s and early 30s. It was a stable and high-paying job — the kind of dream job everyone yearns for,” he said.

  After the US military withdrew from Taiwan, he was unemployed for a while, leading him to work for his father, he said.

  “It was a simple decision to make, since I needed the work, and painting paid a bit better than some other industries,” he said.

  If the Taiwan-US relationship had not changed, he might have never become a temple artist, he said.

  Pan said that working with great artists on the restoration of Songboling Shoutian Temple (松柏嶺受天宮) in Nantou County, after it was damaged in a fire in 2000, was one of his most rewarding and memorable projects.

  During the restoration he had the chance to work with four “outstanding” artists including renowned temple painter Chen Shou-i (陳壽彝), he said.

  However, the temple that has captivated him the most is Tientan Temple (天壇) — Taiwan’s first temple, he said.

  “My grandfather, my father and I all did work for that temple. There are nine paintings in there where they used gold paint on a black back drop, and the result is gorgeous, very elegant,” he said.

  Pan has also taught traditional painting since 2000, and has gone to several campuses to promote the teaching of temple art. For three months in 2007, the Tainan City Government ran a temple painting class at his behest.

  “As long as there are people willing to learn, I am willing to teach,” he said.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Trump signs bill on Taiwan into law

  • 2

    China extradites 10 Taiwanese via Kinmen County

  • 3

    New Taoyuan airport terminal concourse to open

  • 4

    Taiwan courts Japan’s Ayumi Hamasaki after singer snubbed by Shanghai

  • 5

    Taipei welcomes signing of US ‘Taiwan assurance’ act