196 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



The temples are also the homes of the gods. They must have 

 shelter from the rain and the glaring sun, and they must be protected 

 from those who might harm them. The temples must be available for 

 worshipers at any time, and they must have appropriate shrines where 

 worshipers can easily find and worship them. In Chengtu a few years 

 ago a poor woman appeared and said, "I have no house to live in." 

 Later the people decided that the strange old woman was the goddess 

 Kuanyin and that she wanted a temple to live in. Money was raised, 

 and a small temple was built outside the Great South Gate of Chengtu. 

 One of the images in the temple was Kuanyin, the goddess of mercy. 



The temples are also the centers of religious ceremonies and wor- 

 ship. Morning and evening the priests burn incense before the gods, 

 ring the bells, and then bow and kowtow in worship. When requested 

 and paid to do so, the priests chant their sacred books and worship 

 the gods to cause rain, to save a departed soul from hell, to heal the 

 sick, and to exorcise demons. Individuals and families come to the 

 temples to divine and to have their fortunes told, and if at first their 

 luck is divined to be bad, they make a vow and pray, then divine 

 again in order to get their fortunes changed from bad to good. Some- 

 times people come to pray for sons, promising some gift to the god 

 in case the prayer is answered. At the times of the great festivals, 

 especially the birthdays of the gods, thousands come to the temples to 

 worship, to visit, to enjoy the parade, to partake of the feast, and to 

 watch the theatricals. 



Personal inquiries and the local histories indicated that in the 

 province of Szechwan a very few of the temples were erected as early 

 as the T'ang dynasty, A. D. 618-907. A larger number of the tem- 

 ples were built in the Ming dynasty, A. D. 1 368-1644, and still more 

 were founded in the Manchu dynasty. A, D. 1644-1911. A good 

 number of temples were built in the reign of K'ang Hsi, A. D. 1662- 

 1723, and of Ch'ien Lung, A. D, 1736-1796. 



Besides furnishing homes for the priests and the gods, another 

 reason for building the temples is to accumulate merit and karma, 

 and through a good karma to obtain a happier existence in heaven 

 or in a future reincarnation. 



Some of the temples were built by the government under the leader- 

 ship of emperors, governors, or other officials. Motives for their 

 doing so were to obtain the favor of the people, to help propagate 

 the religion in which they believed, and to accumulate merit so as to 

 obtain a happier future existence. 



Sometimes people have believed that a god has manifested himself 



