Taiwan Temple Art Museum

Taiwan Temple Art Museum

The Taiwan Temple Art Museum is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Taiwan Temple Art Museum is located within the Yunlin County Cultural Center and systematically introduces the artistic beauty found in Taiwan’s temples and traditional glove puppetry. Temples are not only places for praying for peace and happiness, but during Taiwan’s early immigrant settlement period, they also often served important functions such as fostering community cohesion, maintaining local security, and promoting education and culture. Their exquisite wood carvings and painted decorations represent the essence of southern Chinese architecture. Glove puppetry is one of the most common theatrical performances at temple festivals, and from its vivid performances to the lifelike carved puppets, it holds great artistic value.

The Temple Art Museum consists of a main hall—the Temple Hall—and two auxiliary halls—the Glove Puppetry Hall and the Deity Hall. Among them, the Temple Hall has the largest area and is divided into 19 sections that introduce Taiwan’s temples. The Han Chinese deities worshipped in Taiwan primarily originated with immigrants who came during the Ming and Qing dynasties, so the temple architecture belongs to the southern Chinese tradition, known for its intricate and elaborate ornamentation. A wide range of techniques such as wood carving, stone carving, painting, and pottery sculpture are used to create magnificent and ornate temples. The themes exhibited in the Temple Hall include the relationship between temples and Taiwan’s development, temple festival activities, as well as arts and crafts such as paintings and paper cuttings, and the ceremonial items used in deity processions, offering a rich and diverse display. The museum also features a relocated temple dedicated to the God of Martial Justice (Jia Lan Ye) from Siluo. Its dragon pillars, gates, stone steps, incense burners, and shrines are all relics from the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty, serving as a microcosm of Taiwanese temples. Multimedia presentations are also available, showcasing the beauty of Taiwan’s temples from multiple perspectives.

The Glove Puppetry Hall is another major thematic exhibition space, housing over 200 puppets. The displays are mainly categorized by performance repertoire, bringing to life exquisitely crafted stages, decorated pavilions, and puppet scenes. These include legendary tales such as Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods, temple festival performances like the Three Immortals and The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, as well as famous glove puppet characters such as Shi Yaman from The Scholar Swordsman of Shenzhou, Mirror-Faced Shadow, and Secret Carving. Most are traditional, small-sized hand puppets, while some are modern, larger “Golden Light” glove puppets standing around 2 to 3 feet tall. The helmets, shoes, weapons, and other accessories worn by the puppets also symbolize various identities such as loyalty, treachery, good, evil, scholarly male roles, and martial female roles. Additionally, early scripts, decorated stages, puppet theaters, leather drums, and suona horns used in performances are also on rare display, making them quite precious.

Behind the Glove Puppetry Hall is the Deity Hall, which exhibits commonly worshipped deities in Taiwan such as Mazu, Guanyin, the King of the Lords, Guan Sheng Di Jun (God of War), and the God of Earth (Fude Zheng Shen), featuring over a hundred statues. One particularly unique exhibit is the “Sixty Yuan Chen Gods,” commonly known as the Yearly Lords of Fate. The Deity Hall uses step-by-step visual breakdowns to demonstrate the processes of deity statue creation and the carving tools used.

Address: No. 310, Section 3, University Road, Douliu City, Yunlin County

Phone: (05) 532-5191, 532-7613

Opening Hours: 08:30–11:30, 14:00–17:00

Closed: Mondays, the day after public holidays, and the last day of each month

Transportation Guide

1. Take the Taiwan Railways Administration’s West Coast Line to Douliu, then walk via Datong Road, Zhongshan Road, and University Road; or transfer to a Taisi Bus heading to Huwei or Beigang and get off at Yunlin Hospital.

2. From Kaohsiung, take a Ubus bound for Puli and get off at National YunTech University, then walk about 500 meters to reach the museum.