User:Tdesmond13/Templo de Kun Iam Tong (Macau)

The Temple of Kun Iam Tong (Macau)

The Temple of Kun Iam Tong is one of the three largest and richest temples Buddhists of Macau and was originally called "Pou Chai Sim Un" (Pou Chai Temple). It is considered one of the oldest temples in Macau and was founded in the century. XIII to venerate the Kun Iam, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy and Compassion.The current temple was built in 1627, a fact confirmed by a flagstone patio where it is written in Chinese "Built in the seventh month of the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Tian Qi." The Temple is located at Avenida do Coronel Mesquita, the Parish of Our Lady of Fatima, near Mong Ha and Kun Iam Temple and Seng Chai Wong.

The temple has a large entrance gate and roofs clustered with porcelain figures. Inside the temple, there are three pavilions are richly decorated main separated by two courtyards. These pavilions are dedicated, respectively, to the Three Precious Buddhas, the Buddha of Longevity and Kun Iam. In the third pavilion, the statue of Kun Iam is dressed in embroidered silk and decorated with a fringed crown, which is replaced annually. It is accompanied by 18 Buddhas on either side of the altar. Behind these pavilions are terraced gardens, one of which contains a memorial arch. In addition to the architectural and artistic value of the temple, given its rich decoration, it saves a lot of important documents and rolls of calligraphy and painting famous Chinese authors, for example, Qu Dajun. During the Second World War, the Chinese painter Gao Jianfu lived and taught in the temple.

It was just a stone table located in the gardens of the temple which was signed the first treaty sinoamericano on July 3rd of 1844 by the Viceroy of Canton, Qi Jing, and the minister Caleb Cushing of the U.S. This treaty is known as the " Sino-American Treaty of Mong-Ha." Near the table, there are four older trees with branches intertwined, better known as "tree lovers" and symbolic of marital fidelity. In other parts of the garden there are a small pavilion containing a marble statue of a monk, several sources in the form of miniature Chinese landscapes, groves of bamboo and small shrines to departed priests.

The feast of Kun Iam is celebrated on the 19th day of the second, sixth, ninth and eleventh lunar months.