Tin How Temple

About

The Tin How Temple, also rendered Tianhou Temple, rises upon Waverly Place in the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown and is venerated as the oldest extant Taoist Temple in the city, as well as one of the oldest continuously active Chinese Temples in the United States. The shrine is dedicated to the Empress of Heavens, Mazu, the goddess of the sea who watches over fishermen, sailors and all who undertake long voyages.

Founded around 1852 or 1853 by Day Ju, said to have been among the earliest Chinese arrivals in San Francisco, the Temple took shape during the great wave of Chinese immigration drawn to California by the Gold Rush. Migrants brought their devotions across the Pacific, raising Temples to the divinities of their southern Chinese homeland.

The building was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906, although the image of Mazu, the Temple bell and part of the altar were saved from the flames. The site passed to the Sue Hing Benevolent Association, which built a four-storey structure on the same lot and reopened the shrine on its top floor in 1910. After closure in 1955, the Temple was rededicated in 1975.

The sanctuary is reached by ascending a narrow staircase to its upper-floor altar, where red lanterns hang from the ceiling, incense rises before the image of the goddess and worshippers leave offerings of fruit, paper money and prayers. The Chinese name for Waverly Place itself, the Street of the Tin How Temple, attests to the centrality of the shrine in Chinatown.

History

Chinese migrants drawn to California by the Gold Rush founded the Temple around 1852 or 1853 under Day Ju, one of the earliest Chinese settlers in San Francisco, making it the oldest Taoist Temple in the city's Chinatown. The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed the original building, though the image of the goddess, the Temple bell, and part of the altar were carried out of the flames; the Sue Hing Benevolent Association then rebuilt on the same site, reopening the shrine on the top floor of a new four-storey building in 1910. The Temple closed in 1955 as Chinatown's population contracted, then reopened on 4 May 1975 after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 brought new life to the neighbourhood, and in May 2010 the community marked its hundredth year on Waverly Place with lion dances and firecrackers through the streets.

Significance

Tin How Temple is the oldest Taoist Temple standing in San Francisco's Chinatown and one of the oldest Chinese Temples still active anywhere in the United States, a direct thread from the Gold Rush generation to the present day. Waverly Place itself carries the Temple's name in Chinese, Tin How Temple Street, a small sign of how central this shrine has remained to the life of the neighbourhood for more than a century and a half.

Architecture

A traditional Chinese Temple shrine occupying the top floor of a 1910 Chinatown tenement building, its facade marked by a carved and painted Chinese-and-English signboard, with red votive lantern tags and incense braziers within