Xidamiao Temple

Xidamiao Temple

Xidamiao Temple is a cultural relic protection unit of Yingkou City.

Xidamiao Temple is located in Xidamiao Community, Yushi Subdistrict Office, West District, Yingkou City, and was originally known as the Heavenly Queen’s Palace. The temple structure was rebuilt in 2001 on its former site using modern construction materials.

The earliest temple in Yingkou City was the Dragon King Temple, and Xidamiao Temple was built on the site of the former Dragon King Temple. A stone tablet from the 4th year of the Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty (1726) provides definitive records of its reconstruction. There were several subsequent renovations, with the last one before the founding of the People’s Republic of China taking place in 1929. No further repairs were made until 1986, when the Yingkou Cultural Relics Management Office took over the site from the Yushi Subdistrict Office, relocated the paint factory occupying the area, and restored the only remaining three main halls and one side hall. In 1996, according to a municipal government decision, the temple was handed over to the city’s Buddhist Association for management. Originally, Xidamiao Temple enshrined the Heavenly Queen, making the Sea Goddess Hall the main structure, fronted by a mountain gate, bell and drum towers, and two side gates. The main hall had three bays with a flush-gable roof, flanked by two three-bay side halls — the left side hall was dedicated to the Medicine God, and the right to the Dragon King. There were also five-bay structures along the eastern and western corridors. Other deities enshrined included the “Goddess of Offspring, Goddess of Sight, God of Bones, the Ten Incompletes, and the Four Deities of Wind, Rain, Thunder, and Lightning.”

A pair of stone lions in front of the main hall are inscribed with the text “Tianhou Palace of Mougouying” and “Erected in the Mid-Autumn Season of the 13th Year of the Tongzhi Reign (1874).” The iron incense burner in the temple courtyard is cast with the words “Heavenly Sacred Mother” and “Erected in the 25th Year of the Jiaqing Reign (1820).” The courtyard once had numerous stone tablets, but these no longer exist.

In 1984, the Yingkou Municipal People’s Government (Ying Zheng Fa [1984] No. 108) designated Xidamiao Temple as a municipal-level cultural relic protection unit. The scope of protection and construction control zone defined by the Yingkou Municipal People’s Government (Ying Zheng Fa [1990] No. 38) is as follows: centered on the original building footprint, the protected area extends south to the rotary intersection and 5 meters east, west, and north; the secondary construction control zone extends 20 meters outward from the protected area’s east, west, and north boundaries.

Information source: Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism Contributor: Dong Wenjie

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