This year’s temple fair is themed “Explore the Folk Temple Fair on the Second Day of the Second Lunar Month and Pray to the Medicine King for Health and Safety.” While retaining traditional formats, it features richer cultural content, greater visitor participation, more exciting performances, and a wider variety of foods. Over the 15-day event, five major categories comprising 23 activities will be offered, including prayers for peace, cultural experiences and exhibitions, recreational performances, merchandise fairs, and leisure food options. Highlights include worshipping the Medicine King, praying for health, free clinics by renowned doctors, folk operas and parades, modern song and dance performances, and entertainment acts that keep visitors enthralled. The temple fair market is also more vibrant, with products in five exhibition zones—food, commerce, intangible heritage, traditional Chinese medicine, and games—that cater to visitors’ diverse needs. It is reported that during the fair period, tickets to Yaowang Mountain Scenic Area will be available at a 50% discount.
Sun Simiao was a great medical scientist and health preservation expert during China’s Sui and Tang dynasties, ranking among the three most renowned ancient physicians. His greatest contribution to human health was advocating medical ethics and authoring the clinical encyclopedias of medicinal and health science, Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold for Emergencies and Supplement to Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold. He lived over a hundred years, possessed great talent and virtue, chose a life of seclusion over officialdom, healed the sick of his time, and left behind prescriptions for generations to come, earning him the posthumous title of “Medicine King.” The North Wutai Mountain where he once lived in seclusion was later renamed Yaowang Mountain. Every year on the second day of the second lunar month, a grand temple fair in his honor has been held here without interruption for a thousand years.
With the attention of the Tongchuan Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government to cultural relics protection and the comprehensive restoration and development of Yaowang Mountain, the temple fair has gained even more attention. In 2008, the “Yaowang Mountain Temple Fair” was included in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the State Council, becoming a genuine gateway for modern people to connect with the Medicine King and learn about traditional Chinese medicine and wellness culture. Meanwhile, Tongchuan City has continuously hosted the China Sun Simiao Traditional Chinese Medicine Culture Festival, which also features grand public worship ceremonies for the Medicine King. “Thousand-Gold Prescriptions save countless lives, and drums and flutes sound every year in reverence to the Medicine King.” Today, the Yaowang Mountain Temple Fair has evolved into a traditional folk event that combines commerce, tourism, leisure, wellness, and Buddhist studies.