Dawu Mountain Ganlu Temple

Dawu Mountain Ganlu Temple

Dawu Mountain Ganlu Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

Ganlu Temple is situated to the north of Dawu Mountain Farm and at the southern foot of Guanyin Mountain. Guanyin Mountain, rising over 400 meters above sea level, earned its name due to the uniquely shaped rocks on its rugged western side that resemble a veiled Guanyin seated in meditation. The Tong’an County Annals record: “Ganlu Temple was first built during the Tang Dynasty but was later abandoned. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the revivalist monk Wuyi raised funds to restore it.” It is a two-courtyard, three-bay palace-style stone-and-timber structure with a central courtyard and worship pavilion. The temple once housed a Wei-style plaque inscribed with the characters “Ganlu Chan Temple” by Lu Xiufu, the prime minister of the late Song Dynasty, and wooden couplets carved by the renowned Ming calligrapher Zhang Ruitu—unfortunately, both have been lost. To the right of the temple lies the stupa of Monk Wuyi, featuring a circular lotus-petal-patterned base. It is a municipal-level cultural relic protection unit and was renovated just two years ago. The surrounding area has tea trees and banyan trees planted by Monk Wuyi himself. Legend says that when the temple was being built, dew dripping from the pine and bamboo throughout the mountain tasted sweet, hence the name. It is said that there were originally ninety-nine halls in the upper and lower temples, with up to a hundred monks during its peak.

The temple enshrines the Buddhas of the Three Ages, flanked by guardian deities. The front hall features the Bodhisattva Maitreya, who greets all worshippers with an ever-smiling face. The temple houses over ten pairs of couplets, all fine works from ancient and modern times, rich in philosophy and exquisitely calligraphed. The front hall’s pillar couplet reads: “The verdant hills flow with sweet dew, the enlightened heart perceives the divine bell.” The Maitreya seat couplet says: “A broad belly embraces the world’s many affairs, a heart full of joy laughs away all sorrows past and present.” The main gate’s couplet begins with: “Sweet as the Buddha’s fruit, grasping true meaning; dew on the willow branch, blessing all beings.”

Here, peaks stand in a ring, each vying in beauty. To the north is Tiger Head Mountain; to the northeast are Dapu Mountain, Dawu Mountain, Zhai’zi Mountain, and E’tou Mountain; to the southeast are Baiyunfei Mountain, Jinpaizhai Mountain, and Fengyao Mountain. The mountains are covered in lush pines and cypresses, alive with the songs of birds. The temple stands amidst this sea of green, with fields stretching out before it, and villages scattered below, their cooking smoke drifting gently, evoking a sense of a hidden paradise. The Qing Dynasty poet Chen Taozhang wrote in his poem “Revisiting Ganlu Temple”: “Recalling spring’s early emerald breeze, I rise at dawn, drawn back once more. Thousand-layer cliffs cluster like snail shells, hundred-foot waterfalls mirror like silk. Autumn hues tint the clouds faintly, the ancient temple’s fame sweet dew bestows. Gazing afar, boundless feelings arise, falling leaves dot the azure pool.” The surrounding beauty is captured in these verses.

Established during the Tang Dynasty, Dawu Mountain Ganlu Temple has long been a renowned temple in Xiang’an District. However, due to its remote mountain location and poor transportation, it saw few visitors and fell into long-term disrepair. Since the reform and opening-up period, the surrounding villages jointly established a management committee, raised funds for renovation, recast the statues, and brought the ancient temple back to life.

In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Monk Wuyi revived Ganlu Temple. He gained widespread acclaim for leading his disciples to clear the corpses left after massacres in Tong’an and Zhangzhou. To escape persecution by Qing troops, he took refuge at Dawu Mountain Ganlu Temple, raised funds for its restoration, and created “Ganlu Tea” to combat plagues and aid the people. In the 1940s, Venerable Xinqing (now the abbot of Meishan Temple) practiced at Ganlu Temple.

The ancient temple is surrounded by historic sites. There is the “Gu Zhai Eighteen Bends,” a shortcut from Northern Tong’an to Quanzhou during the Song Dynasty (constructed in the first year of the Jingding era of the Song Dynasty by Zheng Gongxiang and the monk Miaolian, named for its eighteen switchbacks from the back hill of Gu Zhai in Xinxu to Yunzhongyan). The Eighteen Bends ancient path leads up to Nanshan, down to Liaoye, and connects to the ancient Zhang-Quan road at Haoling (formed during the Han Dynasty). This road played an immeasurable role in the prosperity of Tong’an City at the time.

The Daliao Ling Palace in Houlu Village is one of the ancestral temples of many Taisui Palaces in Taiwan. Over the years, more than ten temples, including Tainan Shanhua Pu’an Palace, Taipei Shilin Wuji Hall, Neihu District Huan’an Palace, Chiayi Fengxing Palace and Shengqing Palace, Nantou Tianfa Palace, Taichung Miaotian Palace, Kaohsiung Zhongsheng Palace, Wangmu Palace, and Mingyue Palace, Zhanghua She’tou’s Taiyuan Palace, Puzi’s Yusheng Palace, Hsinchu Miaosheng Palace, Shengdao Palace, and Mingjitang, and Miaoli County Cilong Palace, and Taoyuan County’s Faqing Palace, have visited to pay homage and seek the sacred flame.

Dawu Mountain spans over ten li and is rich in legends. It is said that Jinpaizhai Mountain is one of the “Eighteen Caves of Southern Fujian” conquered by the Song Dynasty’s Yang Wenguang. The mountain features a hexagonal well, said to have been drilled by Yang Wenguang with his golden spear. The rocks at the bottom of the well once bore the seal script of Lin Xiyuan (now destroyed). On the Wugonglun of Baiyunfei Mountain lies the tomb of Su Yi, the progenitor of the Su clan who migrated to Southern Fujian, now a municipal-level cultural relic protection unit. Below the mountain, Jinbing Village was home to a prominent Huang clan that migrated to Tong’an from Quanzhou during the Tang Dynasty. Ganlu Temple combines religious faith, sightseeing, and summer retreat, making it a tourism spot yet to be fully developed.

Dawu Mountain features rugged terrain and overlapping peaks, serving as a guerrilla base for the Wugong Working Group of the Xiang’an Committee during the Liberation War. In 1949, the vanguard of the People’s Liberation Army that liberated Tong’an advanced via the Eighteen Bends. Local farmers have cultivated tea gardens since ancient times, and the “Ganlu Tea” named after the temple is exported worldwide. A couplet at the mountain’s tea hut reads: “Gu Zhai Eighteen Bends winds up to Yunzhongyan, tea is found the world over, but Ganlu is found nowhere else.” A tea-serving station is set up at the temple’s entrance for passersby to taste. The garlic of Gu Zhai is famous both at home and abroad, thriving for millennia as an export commodity. These are all tourism resources waiting to be developed within the Ganlu Temple scenic area.

Source: Xiang’an District People’s Government, Author: Hong Shuxun