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| Landmark #927 | Mendocino County | Visited: August 2, 2014 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | The last Taoist temple on the North California coast! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: One of the oldest of California’s Chinese houses of worship in continuous use, the temple may date back as far as 1854, though its documented history reaches only to 1883. The Chinese built many temples in California, but most have been destroyed, and no others remain on the North Coast.
OTHER TIDBITS: Not a lot of Chinese immigrants made it north of San Francisco, but Mendocino had a sizeable population of Cantonese speakers! They built the temple here in honor of Kwan Tai, or Guan Di, the god of war, who was originally a brilliant general in the second and third centuries, AD! Kwan Tai is the Daoist symbol for loyalty and integrity and is considered equal in importance to Confucius! Even though the Chinese people who lived here were not well received, as was common across California, they did not cease in their expressions of joy and good luck through their architecture. After all, many of them had escaped death from famine and the Taiping Rebellion over in China! |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: 45160 Albion St Mendocino, CA 95460 ANNOTATIONS: From Los Angeles: ~528mi (850km) — 8.8hrs |
| When should I go? | You can see the exterior any time you like, but you’ll have to contact the temple to visit the interior! |
