Thailand Travel Pages - Wong Tai Sin Temple

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Wong Tai Sin Temple - Hong Kong:

One of the most famous shrines in Hong Kong, Wong Tai Sin is dedicated to the Great Immortal Wong a Chinese deity renowned for his healing powers.

Located on the southern side of Lion Rock in the north of Kowloon, the ancestral Temple was built in 1915 in the traditional Chinese style with deep red pillars, yellow latticework and multi-colored carvings. Worshippers from three major Chinese religions: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism use the Temple, but it is mainly considered to be a Taoist Temple.

Most people come to the Temple in search of spiritual guidance via a practice called “Kau Cim”. This involves lighting an incense stick and kneeling before the main altar to make a wish. Once their wish has been cast, worshippers queue to shake a bamboo cylinder until a fortune stick falls out. They then exchange the fortune stick for a piece of paper bearing the same number and this is taken to a soothsayer, who interprets their fortune. Often, the same piece of paper will be taken to many different soothsayers just to ensure that the worshipper gets exactly the right fortune for them! There are over 100 fortune tellers in the Temple, specializing in every kind of soothsaying: including Kau Cim, I Ching, palm reading, astrology, Feng Shui, etc. some of whom offer their services in English.

As well as being the home of some impressive architecture, the 18,000 meter squared site also has three impressive memorial archways, a beautiful water fountain and a peaceful Good Wish Garden.

The Temple is at its busiest from 1 to 15 of January, during the Chinese New Year holidays and on Wong Tai Sin’s birthday (23rd day of the eighth lunar month - usually in September or October of the Western calendar, depending upon the year).