212 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



as schools, two as waterpower plants, and one each by a youth organi- 

 zation, a military center, a post office, a theater, a charity organization, 

 and a barracks for soldiers. 



Between Chia-chiang and Lo-shan is the small town of Kan- 

 chiang-p'u, with a population of about 3,000. I visited it several 

 times and in September 1944 obtained the following information. 

 There were then left only five temples in and near the town. The 

 Kuang-ch'eng-miao was a large temple completely occupied and used 

 as a granary to store rice collected as taxes and for the tax offices, 

 except for one medium-sized room. In this room all the idols from 

 all over the temple had been stored, standing close together in dis- 

 order. Occasionally, but rarely, someone would come in and worship 

 these idols. 



A second large temple, the Yu-wang-miao, was occupied and used 

 by a police station and its offices. All the idols were placed in the 

 rear and fenced off, with very little worship. A third large temple 

 was the Wang-yeh-miao, the temple of the god of boatmen. It was 

 being used as a lower primary school. It was the best temple in the 

 town, but all the idols had been removed and there was no worship 

 inside. A fourth temple was the Hsiang-kung-miao. It was being 

 used as a butcher shop where cattle were being cut up into beef and 

 sold. In it there was almost no worship. 



Across a nearby creek was a very small new temple that had been 

 built around a pagodalike "word-treasury." A god had revealed him- 

 self and told a sick man how to get healed. The man got well, which 

 proved that the god was alive, wise, compassionate, and efficacious. 

 The temple was then built, too small to be useful for anything but 

 worship. In this temple are Wang-yeh, Kuanyin, and Ku'ei-hsin, 

 the god who helps students and scholars. 



Lo-shan is a city of 100,000 people situated at the juncture of the 

 Min and the Ya Rivers. During World War II it suffered severely 

 from Japanese air raids; many buildings were destroyed, and many 

 city blocks of buildings were burned. In this way many temples were 

 lost, and none were rebuilt. We made a careful map of the city with 

 the location of the temples and obtained information about their con- 

 dition and uses. Out of about 70 temples, we found only about 20 

 that could still really be called temples. The only temple not occupied 

 and used for other purposes was one about 30 feet square, too small 

 to be coveted. One temple was used as a police station, and all the 

 idols had been removed. Several large temples were used as barracks 

 for soldiers, and while not all the idols had been destroyed, those re- 



