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

Established around 1852 by Day Ju amid the founding generation of San Francisco's Chinese community, the temple was destroyed in the catastrophic earthquake and fire of 1906, though sacred objects were rescued from the ruin. Rebuilt at the same site by the Sue Hing Benevolent Association and reopened in 1910, it closed in 1955 amid the contraction of mid-century Chinatown and reopened in 1975 after the post-1965 revival of Chinese immigration. In May 2010 the community celebrated the temple's centenary with a procession through the streets of Chinatown, with lion dances and fireworks.

Significance

The Tin How Temple has stood for more than a century and a half at the heart of Chinese American religious life in San Francisco, embodying the migration of Mazu devotion across the Pacific. As the oldest Taoist temple of San Francisco's Chinatown and one of the oldest Chinese temples in the United States, it preserves a continuous thread of folk Daoist worship across the long history of the Chinese diaspora in America.