Yen Wo Society

The Yen Wo Society building, constructed in 1912 and designed by L.W. Hargreaves, includes a store on the main floor, a meeting hall on the second floor, apartment on the third floor and the Tam Kung Temple on the top floor (Photo by Robert Amos, 2008).

The Yen Wo Society, a dialect association which was founded by Hakka speakers in Victoria in 1905, is custodian of the oldest Chinese temple in Canada, the Tam Kung Temple. The Hakka are a Chinese ethnic group originating in the north of China that moved south in successive migrations, the last one in the thirteenth century. In South China, the Hakka maintained a distinct language and identity. Geographer David Chuenyan Lai explains that the deity Tam Kung has several possible origin stories. One stated that he was an orphaned child with miraculous powers to calm storms at sea, heal diseases and bring rain. A second legend maintains that Tam Kung was an energetic Hakka elder who helped the eight-year-old Emperor Bing of the Song Dynasty escape from Mongolian forces in 1278. A third story states that Tam Kung was a fictitious name for the young Emperor Bing himself, who was deified after his death.

The Tam Kung Temple dates back to the 1860s, when a Hakka native from Guangdong Province brought a statue of Tam Kung with him to Victoria. When he left for the gold rush on the Fraser River, he placed the statue in a wooden niche along the Johnson Street ravine for others to worship. Several years later, Ngai Sze, a Hakka resident in Victoria, had a dream in which Tam Kung told Sze to build him a temple. In January 1876, a small temple was dedicated to Tam Kung on rented property at the corner of Fisgard and Government streets. One year later, Tsay Ching and Dong Sang purchased this property at 1713 Government Street for the temple.

This was the Tam Kung Temple at the corner of Government and Fisgard, after the statue of Tam Kung was moved from its location in a humble wooden box on the Johnson Street Ravine, and before the statue was moved to the fourth-storey temple in the Yen Wo Society building (Photo by Charles Yang, 2012).

The small brick temple remained in place for over thirty years. In 1905, Hakka people in Victoria founded the Yen Wo Society, then in 1911, this society purchased the property where the Tam Kung Temple was located, demolished the brick temple and replaced it in 1912 with a narrow four-storey building adjacent to the former Chinese Empire Reform Association building on Government Street. The Tam Kung Temple was relocated to the top floor of this building, where it is still maintained by the Yen Wo Society and open to the public. Believers come to the temple to seek advice from Tam Kung about how to make important life decisions, or how to heal an illness. After making an offering of incense, a believer will kneel and shake a bamboo tube that holds 103 bamboo sticks. Each of the sticks is numbered, and when one stick falls out, the number on that stick corresponds to an oracular verse containing advice from Tam Kung. Alternatively, a similar process is used to find a prescription to remedy an ailment.

The front door of the Yen Wo Society Building (Photo by Robert Amos, 2008).

Silk banners line the walls of the Tam Kung Temple, above offerings of fruit and flowers (Photo by Robert Amos, 2008).

The left photo shows the domed ceiling of the temple. The brocade below the dome states, “Protected by God's blessing.” The right photo is a view of the temple from the front balcony. The silk banners were donated by worshippers in thanks to Tam Kung. Visible at the bottom of the picture are the mats on which believers kneel to gently shake the bamboo tube of numbered sticks, in front of a stone censer (a vessel in which to burn incense) dated to 1903. The front altar table contains an elaborate gilded wood carving, and bowls of fruit and flower arrangements sit on top (Photos by Charles Yang, 2012).

The statue of Tam Kung and the altar table (Photo by Charles Yang, 2012).

A drum and bell in a bell stand. The cast iron bell, painted with black lacquer is one of the oldest artefacts of the temple, dating to 1887. Twice a day, the temple guardian calls for Tam Kung’s attention by striking the bell and the drum. To the right of the bell stand is a small altar for the Kitchen God, Zaojun (Photo by Charles Yang, 2012).

This certificate indicates that the Yen Wo Society was incorporated under the Society Act of BC on 20 May 1993. The Yen Wo Society had already been founded by Hakka speakers in Victoria in 1905 (BC Registry Services, Society files no. S30558).

This document, dated 1 August 1911, defines the purposes of the Yen Wo Society (here spelled Yuen Wo), identifies the founders and explains the rules for holding office within the society (Royal BC Museum, BC Archives, 880056-4493-S271).

By-laws of the Yen Wo Society (Yuen Wo Society) in July 1922 (Royal BC Museum, BC Archives, 880056-4493-S271).

Sources

Amos, Robert and Kileasa Wong. Inside Chinatown: Ancient Culture in a New World. Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2009.

Lai, David Chuenyan. The Forbidden City within Victoria: Myth, Symbol and Streetscape of Victoria’s Earliest Chinatown. Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 1991.

“Temples and Shrines: Tam Kung Temple, Victoria, BC.” Chinese in North America Research Committee.

http://www.cinarc.org/Shrines.html (accessed 16 October 2012)

“Temples and Shrines: Tam Kung Temple, Victoria, BC.” Chinese in North America Research Committee.

http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=14971 (accessed 16 October 2012)