A Must-Visit Spot in Gongliao: Liyang Temple, Home to Taiwan’s Only “Basket-Carrying Guanyin”

Wu Wen-yi, the head of Fulian Village, said that during the Guangxu era, local residents found a statue of Guanyin holding a basket filled with fish on the shore. They then raised funds to build a temple. To this day, there are eight replicated statues of Guanyin inside the temple, but it remains the only one in Taiwan enshrining such a unique Guanyin statue.

It is speculated that this basket-carrying Guanyin statue drifted from mainland China to Taiwan, though there is no concrete evidence to confirm this. It is also said that after the fishing-dependent village discovered the Basket-Carrying Guanyin, their catches were abundant, and the villagers believed it was due to the blessings of the Basket-Carrying Guanyin.


▲ Wu Wen-yi, head of Fulian Village. (Photo / Reporter Chen Ziying)

Basket-Carrying Guanyin
Legend has it that on a certain seaside in mainland China, male villagers saw a woman who sold fish daily and believed she must be a virtuous wife, all competing to marry her. The fish-selling woman then set three challenges for the men. She said, “Whoever can recite the Lotus Sutra (Pumen Pin) from memory in five days, I will marry him.” Unexpectedly, 40 men succeeded in five days, so the fish-selling woman set another challenge: “Whoever can recite the Diamond Sutra (Jingang Jing) from memory in five days, I will marry him.” This time, more than 10 succeeded. Finally, the fish-selling woman said, “Whoever can recite the Lotus Sutra (Lianhua Jing) from memory, I will marry him.” Only one fisherman surnamed Ma succeeded. The fish-selling woman kept her promise and married him.

On their wedding night, however, the fish-selling woman suddenly died of appendicitis. On the night of the funeral, an elderly man told the fisherman surnamed Ma, “In fact, your wife is the reincarnation of the Buddha. Don’t believe me? Open the coffin and see.” When the fisherman opened the coffin, a white mist emerged—and it turned out the fish-selling woman was Guanyin, and the old man was the Earth God.

Liyang Temple
Address: No. 25, Fuxing Street, 8th Neighborhood, Fulian Village, Gongliao District, New Taipei City