Taoist Temple - Chong Hua Sheng Mu Holy Palace

An abandoned Taoist temple is not the kind of thing you come across every day. I like photographing old, abandoned churches but this caught me by surprise. As I wrote in an earlier post:

I really like old churches. I think this is because the character of an aging church has a certain beauty that I find captivating. When churches show their age, it reminds you of all they’ve been through. They are the scene of some the happiest and some of the saddest time in people’s lives. Additionally, with abandoned churches we naturally start wondering why where they abandoned. Was it a loss of faith, or some other factor? Our mind is captured by the possibilities. Because of this, you get an emotional connection to old churches.

Unfortunately, Chong Hua Sheng Mu Holy Palace never had the opportunity to serve as this emotional linchpin to the congregation. Construction started in 1999 by the founder and spiritual leader of Tien Tao, a universalist religion. When the master died his protégée continued the construction and developed plans for a complex of buildings including daycare, retail, and residential living. However, the new leader’s immigration “difficulties” resulted in her deportation. As a result, work stopped and the Chong Hua Sheng Mu Holy Palace sits uncompleted and unused for over twenty years.

It appears that someone is doing some minimum level of maintenance. Additionally, unconfirmed reports indicate the building may be in the process of being re-purposed. Nonetheless, it is sad to see that the building won’t serve its intended purpose.

The Golden Orb(s)

The most striking feature is the large (40-foot in diameter) golden orb in the center of the building. I’ve seen photos showing two smaller golden orbs, one on each corner of the building. Why they were removed is unknown.

Clearly, the large golden orb is what grabs your eye when you see this building. Despite this, my first two version of the photo below were black and white. Now, I do love black and white and the tonality of the orb was really nice. But what was I thinking? This scene needs to be photographed in color! Fortunately, I eventually came to my senses.