SHRINES & HALLS  庙宇莊厳.殿堂清静
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This page is about shrines, temples, and the halls of organizations, not about the beliefs of the religions involved.   Those wishing to learn more about the tenets of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and the less formal belief systems of North American Chinese will find them discussed on many other websites.  Our concern here is with the physical aspects of religious and secular ritual, and what these tell us about the histories, societies, and psychologies of Chinese immigrants who found themselves in a new land, quite empty of the ancient religious symbols that had sustained their ancestors.
Tam Kung Temple, Victoria, BC  卑斯省域多利谭公庙

The oldest active Chinese temple in the Pacific Northwest is on the fourth floor of a building at Fisgard and Government Streets in Victoria's Chinatown.  The building is owned by the local Hakka association, the Yen Wo Society 客属人和会馆,
but the temple itself, founded in 1875 by Ngai Sze 魏泗, is older than the association.  According to David Chenyuan Lai, it is the oldest in Canada.  Along with a few temples in California (notably the 1852 Tian Ho Temple in San Francisco and the 1874 temple at Weaverville) that are still active and continuously in use, it is one of the oldest such temples in North America.

Tam Kung is a Daoist deity, popular in the South China around Hong Kong and Macau.  Professor Lai gives his background.  Tam Kung was a real human being who lived in the 13th century.  One (Hakka) story has it that he was a Hakka elder in Kowloon, now part of Hong Kong, who aided the last emperor of the Song dynasty, an 8 year-old boy, in his flight from the invading armies of the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan.   Tam Kung with his Hakka community were executed by the Mongols for his patriotic efforts, but later he was deified and temples were built in his honor.

The age of Victoria's Tam Kung temple, known from a single historical record, is confirmed by the dates inscribed along with the temple's name on several of the objects that form part of the temple furnishings.  Although a fire in the 1990s destroyed many of those furnishings, luckily several such dated pieces survived.






































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Objects with Early Dates, Tam Kung Temple, Victoria.

         DateObject      Reading in English     Chinese                   Donors (names in Pinyin)

11887Bronze censer     "Made in Canton by      光绪十三年孟秋月吉旦 Luo Basheng, He Shenjing,
with two taotie    Yongsheng"         谭公 仙圣爷爷沐恩弟子Deng Weishao, Fumian
masks as handles,   骆拔陞, 何申靖, 邓维绍,Tang, Wei Si, Xu Qinghua
smallest but oldest   福绵堂, 魏泗, 俆清华, 等
of the three     敬造省城小半甫永盛造   

21887A cast iron bell    No maker's name  谭公仙圣爷爷光绪十三Same as above
covered with black    年孟秋吉旦沐恩弟子骆
lacquer suspended    拔陞, 何申清, 邓维绍,
on a stand with a      福绵堂, 魏泗, 俆清华,
drum on top.  Foshan 等仝敬造国泰民安风
foundry style.     调雨顺 

31894(R side) Vertical   "Gallantry subdues       威镇边疆咸钦地利.
couplet on wood   the frontier            光绪二十秋旦

41894        (L side) Vertical "Blessings cover the       恩垂梓里共仰人和.              Ren Wo Co., Vancouver
couplet on wood,         neighborhood and          咸水埠人和公司敬奉           (Xianshuibu, Renhe Gongsi)
    favor harmony" 

5No date    Horizontal plaque.     谭公仙圣.  陈乐三敬书        Chen Lesan
1894?       (style matches the
1894 couplets)  

61894Bronze censer with     "Made in Hong Kong       光绪二十年仲秋吉旦立       Xiao Guanmei
  two taotie masks as   by Liang Jinsheng"  谭公仙圣沐恩弟子萧观       Li Qi & wife
  handles,   妹敬造香港梁晋盛造

71897A five-piece alter set 谭公仙圣.  光绪二十三        Li Qi & wife
of pewter: vases, can-年仲秋口沐恩弟子李
dle sticks, censer.    期口口口口口
Only the censer is
inscribed

81897A table façade carved  "Made in Lianxing   粤东省  联兴街光绪二
with theatrical scenes   Street, Guangzhou十三年仲冬立许三友造
and gilded.          by Xu Sanyou"
  
91903A stone censer with   光绪癸卯年立谭公仙   Lai Rifang, Chen Jinsheng
engraved characters   圣赖日芳. 陈金生敬送
on one side      沐恩弟子

10      1906      Bronze censer with     "Made in Guangzhou       丙午年仲春嗀旦谭公仙       Liu Jingyao
two taotie masks as     by Jucheng"                 圣沐恩弟子刘敬尧敬
handles and a separate     獻省城天平街钜成造
scalloped base,
the largest and latest
of the three
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Data on Tam Kung history come from an article by David Chenyuen Lai, "Tam Kung Feted" in [Victoria} Times-Colonist  23 May 2004 p D12
5. Tam Kung Horizontal Plaque
7. Pewter Altar Set, 1897
1, 6, 10.  L-R: Censers.  1887, 1894, 1906
9. Stone Censer, 1903
2. Cast Iron Bell, 1887
Bell Stand with Drum and Bell
2.  Date on Back of Bell: "Guangxu 13th Year"
The CCBA's Meeting Hall and Shrine in Victoria: Prestige from Home Town Heroes  加拿大域多利埠中华会馆大堂

In 1884 a dozen Chinese merchants in Victoria lobbied to form their own Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), modeled after but not administratively related to the older CCBA, often known as the Six Companies, in San Francisco.  The Association was established the next year.  It enjoyed a semi-official status, with the endorsement by the imperial Chinese Government, as the representative of the Victoria Chinese community in dealings with the government of Canada.  More details of the Victoria CCBA's history are available in the Association’s 60th anniversary handbook and in a new CCBA-sponsored book, Robert Amos and Kileasa Wong's Inside Chinatown, Ancient Culture in a New World, Touchwood Editions, 2009.  A comprehensive history of the Association by David Chenyuen Lai has been completed and is currently in press (see Note 1).   

The original congratulatory plaques and shrine of the CCBA have been set up on the top floor of the Chinese Public School in Victoria.  The shrine is exceptionally handsome and will later be described here in more detail.

Of special interest here are the congratulatory plaques presented at the founding of the CCBA.  Several were composed and written in an elegant style by members of the cultural elite in China, at the request of Chinese organizations in Victoria.  Such organizations evidently went to great effort in acquiring the plaques.  Usually they chose elite individuals
from the same clan or home town to do the composing and calligraphy.  These clanship and home town connections must have made the individuals, who like all high officials would have been skilled with the writing brush, more willing to do the work.  The connections must also have been a matter of pride to the organizations and their leaders who would have been eager to show off their elite connections back in China and, quite possibly, their good taste in appreciating fine calligraphy.  The plaques helped to prove that they were not just shopkeepers, a low-status occupation in traditional China, but cultured and educated persons, able to communicate as near-equals with the mandarin upper classes who had long controlled the imperial government. 

Here are four examples of notable plaques presented to the Victoria CCBA; they were shown to the editors by Kileasa Wong, editor of the Victoria Chinatown Newsletter and secretary of the CCBA.
2.    Vertical couplet with long text in
      black on red.  1885.

  Donor: Chen Family Name Association,
      Ying Chuan branch
  Composer:  Chen Xuqiao陈序球 
  Calligrapher:  Chen Jingshu.  陈景庶?

3. Horizontal plaque with 4 character text and in black lacquer on gold.  1885.
  Text:  文武聖神[ Wenwu shengshen - "Cultural and Military Sacred Immortal"]
  Donor.  The Ma Family Name Association, Jinzi Branch.  马金紫堂. 
  Calligrapher:  Dong Qigeng  董起庚 (1838 – 1900?).    A native of Panyu from the Sam Yup [Three-County] region of
     Guangdong, Q. G. Dong received his provincial level degree in 1875 and taught at a prestigious local college.  His
     calligraphy and paintings were much admired during and after his life. 
4.  Horizontal wooden plaque with 4-character text  in black lacquer on gold.  1885.
   Text:  海域蒙庥 [Haiyu mengxiu -"Coastal Region Receives Protection"]
   Donor:  The Huang Family Name Association, Jiangxia Branch.  黄江夏堂. 
   Calligrapher:  Huang Huaisen黄槐森 (1829-1902).  A renowned scholar and historian, H.S. Huang got his national first-
     rank Jinshi degree in 1862 and was an outstanding educator.  He is credited with having  created three high quality
     schools in his home town near Macau, as well as the former Guangxi provincial university.    
Chen Association, Ying
Chuan Branch Plaque, 1885
Chen Association, Ying
Chuan. Plaque (Detail),
Ma Family Plaque, 1885
Huang Family Plaque, 1885
Huang Plaque,
1885 (Detail)
CCBA shrine at Chinese Public School, Victoria





1. 1885  The CCBA's shrine in Victoria, BC: prestige from home town heroes [12/14/09]
2. 1909  The Kong Chow Temple in San Francisco: prestige from diplomats' calligraphy [01/26/10]
3. 1880s (Coming soon) The Joss House in Weaverville CA: secret society links
4. 1875-1887  Victoria's Tam Kung Temple [11/30/09]
5. 1866  The oldest surviving Chinese temple in North America [revised 02/01/10]
6. 1874-1909  Cast iron bells in North American Chinese temples [03/10/10]
The Oldest Surviving Chinese Temple in North America
北美洲最早的华人庙宇

The setting up of places dedicated to traditional worship marked important milestones in the history of North American Chinese.  The first such place was undoubtedly in San Francisco.  Most writers (note 1) agree that the earliest temple was in present-day Chinatown: either a Kong Chow Association temple on Pine Street (recently moved to Stockton Street) or a temple dedicated to Tian Hou on Waverly Place.  Both temples are claimed to be still in existence.  However, whether one accepts such claims depends on how one understands historical continuity.

It is not enough to rely on secondary sources or oral tradition.  It is also not enough just to cite primary sources which mention that a temple dedicated to the same deity or sponsored by the same organization formerly existed in more or less the same place as the present one, as is the case with both the Tian Hou and Kong Chow 岡州 temples.  Think of Druids, Benin, or Abercrombie & Fitch: having the same name does not indicate essential continuity.  Ideally, one wants to see continuous institutional records or an actual structure built for the original temple at the time of founding.  As neither form of evidence is available in the case of San Francisco temples, partly due to the earthquake and fire of 1906, one must turn to another kind of proof: dated temple furnishings such as bells or drums, inscription boards, altar carvings, censers, hangings, and so forth.  Such furnishings are normally moved when temples are rebuilt or relocated, and in post-earthquake San Francisco could easily have been salvaged in the hours or days between the last aftershocks and the time the temples were burned or torn down.  When items of this kind bear the date of donation and the name of the temple or sponsoring institution, they constitute convincing evidence that the temple in question existed at that time in the past. 

The purpose of this article is to find the oldest surviving Chinese temple on this continent.  Which temple has the earliest dated furnishings?  Where and how old is it?
We hope that readers of this article will be inspired to do more research on the subject.  Please let us know if you have seen temple objects with an earlier date.  An object with an even earlier Tongzhi date would be a wonderful find.  And one with a date in the reign of the previous emperor, Xianfeng 咸豐 (1851-61), would be sensational.
These photographs offer a possible answer.  Of the two “oldest” San Francisco temples, the Kong Chow temple on Stockton Street does not have early furnishings (for dates, see above and below), and the earliest object in the Tian Hou temple on Waverly Place, a cast iron bell, was cast in the 13th year of the Tongzhi 同治 reign, or 1874.  Both temples may indeed be older: the city had a Tian Hou temple and a Kong Chow Association shrine as early as the 1850s.  However, evidence of continuiity is lacking. Neither temple can be shown to have existed before its earliest inscription -- Kong Chow before 1909 and Tian Hou before 1873.

The latter shares its earliest date with two other California temples, one in Oroville and one in Weaverville.  Both possess several objects, including the inscribed board and ceramic censer shown here, with Tongzhi 13 dates.  It is not clear why that particular year was so popular for donating temple furnishings.  Was 1874 an especially prosperous or propitious time for California Chinese?  We do not know.

And in any case, at least one temple is definitely older than that. On present evidence, the oldest is the Bok Kai Temple in Marysville 北溪庙, which has one inscribed board dated to Tongzhi 10 and another dated to Tongzhi 5, or 1866! 
This, as far as we currently know, is not only the oldest hard date for a surviving Californian Chinese temple but the earliest dated object made expressly for or by Chinese North Americans.

Now, these conclusions are based on hasty visits by the editors.  Other temples may contain inscribed objects we have not seen, and there are more reputedly old temples on the West Coast, especially in San Francisco.  The contents of a few of those temples have been well photographed and published [note 2].  Most have not, however, and some are association shrines that are closed to everyone except members. 
Bell in Tian Hou temple, San Francisco, 1874 (Tongzhi 13th year), probably from Foshan near Guangzhou

三藩市
華埠天后庙
铁钟
Inscribed board in Oroville temple, 1874 "-----zhi 13th year"
加州奧羅維爾市
華人庙

Censer in Weaverville temple, "Tongzhi 13th year" 
加州雲林庙 同治十三年瓷香炉
Inscribed board in Marysville's Bok Kai temple, 1866 "Tongzhi 5th year"
加州 美利允市 北溪庙

Note 1: Mariann Kaye Wells, Chinese Temples in California,  U of California Berkeley MA Thesis,1962, pp 36-7, 48;  William Hoy, Kong Chow Temple, 1939 (quoted by Wells); Frederick J. Masters, “Pagan Temples in San Francisco,” The Californian, November 1892, p 732, 734

Note 2: Especially the Oroville temple, which is probably the best-published Chinese temple in the U.S.: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/oroville/

Note 3: For the earliest Chinese temple objects in Canada in Victoria's Tam King temple), see above.  They are about twenty years later than the earliest temple objects in California.
The Kong Chow Temple in San Francisco – Prestige from Diplomats' Calligraphy
三藩市1909年岡州会馆重建 - 权贵显赫门楣

Destroyed in San Francisco’s great earthquake and fire of 1906, the headquarters and temple of the Kong Chow Benevolent Association were rebuilt in 1909 at their previous location on Pine Street.  Elders of the Association used this as an opportunity to ensure the goodwill of top-ranking Chinese diplomats, who in those days had real power over American Chinese. Four groups of plaques in white marble were commissioned, and four key Chinese foreign service officials asked to compose and write out suitable inscriptions.  All four complied--after all, Kong Chow had important connections within China as well as in California. Three of the four signed their names without adding their official titles, probably as a gesture of friendship.  
1.  Lintel “Kangzhou [Kong Chow] Huiguan [Association]” in gold on white marble, 1909.  Calligrapher:  Wu Ting Fang of Xinhui, 2 seals.
The best of the best – who could be more suitable than Wu Tingfang?  A native of Xinhui, one of the several Taishanese-speaking counties from which the Association's members came, Wu may have been the best-known and respected diplomat in the Qing dynasty government, noted for his excellent English, witty interviews and lectures, and able defense of his nation's interests.  Attached to the Chinese foreign service since the 1880s, he served as the Chinese minister plenipotentiary (i.e., ambassador 清朝驻美国使臣) to Washington from 1897 to 1903, and again from 1909 to 1910. He visited San Francisco in 1878, 1897, 1903, and 1909  The Kong Chow Association gave a banquet for him in 1897 and must have given one to his wife as well when she stayed in San Francisco for several months in 1901.  San Francisco's Chinese may have felt they owed a special debt to Wu because of his efforts in 1897 to settle once and for all the bloody conflict between the Taishanese-apeaking Sze Yup ("Four County") and the Cantonese-speaking Sam Yup ("Three County") factions in Chinatown
2.    Vertical couplet with 5-word lines in gold on white marble, 1909.  Donor: Kong Chow Association of Los Angeles.  Calligrapher: Hsu Ping Chen.  2 seals. 

Hsu Ping Chen [pinyin: Xu Bingzhen] was the General Consul in San Francisco 驻美国旧金山总领事between 1908 and 1910.  A native of Panyu in Guangdong (and hence a Sam Yup rather than a Sze Yup), Hsu took up the job shortly after his assignment in Japan to study copper mines.   His outsider Sam Yup status may be why, unlike his colleagues, he chose to use his full title on the inscription.  He visited Seattle in 1909 and toured the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.  He may not have liked it--he returned to San Francisco before the Washington Chinese community's much-anticipated China Day. 
Couplet celebrating the Association.
Detail showing Hsu's name, title, and seals
3.  Lintel “Kangzhou Gumiao" [Old Kong Chow Temple] with text in gold on white marble, 1909.  
Calligrapher:  Lei Yung Yew [Li Rongyao]

Lei Yung Yew [pinyin: Li Rongyao 驻美国旧金山总领事], a Cantonese and the successor of Hsu in the position of Consul-General, came to San Francisco in March, 1910.  He stayed on for the same job after the new Republic replaced the Manchu imperial government in 1911.  At the time the lintel was made, this well-seasoned diplomat was still the Consul-General in Cuba, after a short time in the Philippines.  It is hard to believe that he was asked to contribute while far away in Cuba.  The lintel must have been added after Lei came to America. 
4.    Lintel “Qiao Mei Xin Sheng" [Voice of American Chinese] with text in gold on white marble, 1909.   Composer and calligrapher:  Yung Kwai].

It was a bold step for the Kong Chow Association to recruit this showy piece from Yung Kuai [pinyin: Rong Kui], who at the time held a semi-official position with the Chinese Ministry in Washington D.C.  A native of Xiangshan [Zhongshan county] in Guangdong, Yung had been one of the famous group of government sponsored students 官派赴美幼童留学生who came to Yale in the 1870s under the leadership of his uncle, Yong Wing 容闳.  When the government called the students back to China in 1882, Yung was one of only two who refused to go.   Through arrangements by his uncle, he was able to finish his studies.  In spite of the displeasure of conservatives in Beijing, his fluent English and excellent connections with Chinese Americans earned him a long-term job as translator and chargé d’affaires for the Ministry.  Chinese in California, whose relations with Beijing officials were not always good, may have regarded him as someone at the Ministry whom they could trust.  They may also have been impressed by the fact that he was one of the first Cantonese natives to earn an Ivy League degree.
Wu Ting Fang 伍廷芳
San Francisco 1897.
Hsu Ping Chen 許炳榛
San Francisco 1908-10.
Lei Yung Yew, 黎荣耀
San Francisco, 1910
Yung Kwai 容楑,
ca. 1910
Notes on sources: For Wu Tung Fang in San Francisco, see S.F. Chronicle 1897-04-12, 13, 14, 15;  1901-05-29; 1902-11-24, 25; 1908-03-01; New York Times 1908-02-29.  For Yung Kwai in San Francisco, see Chronicle 1909-08-04; 1910-09-11.  Because Lei (or Li) Yung Yew and Hsu Ping Chen both were stationed in San Francisco for several years, they are frequently mentioned in contemporary California newspapers.
Bok Kai Temple, 2008 美利允市 北溪庙正门
1. Horizontal wooden plaque with a 4-character text in gold lacquer on red, dated 1885.

  Text:  會其有極 [Huiqi youji -"Most Superior Gathering"]
  Donor:  the Chen Family Name Association, San Francisco. 
  Composer:  Chen Lanbin 陈兰彬.清朝首任驻美国使臣. Chen
    was the first Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Spain,
    and Peru between 1878 and 1881.  His fame rests heavily on
    being the official who with Yong Wing led the first batch of
    Chinese students to study in the United States in 1871.  While
    it was the Victoria CCBA’s glory to receive LB’s congratulations,
    it was San Francisco’s Chen family who persuaded him to help.

  Calligrapher:  Chen Huaju 陈華聚, who was a
    national first-rank Jinshi degree holder and a native
    of Xinhui in the Sze Yup [Four County] region of
    Guangdong.  H.J. Chen probably knew some of
    the Victoria Chens who also came from Xinhui.  
Chen Famly Plaque (Detail)
Chen Famly Plaque
Note 1.  Lai's book will offer a unique historical overview of Victoria's Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and of related associations in other Canadian cities.  It is the only treatment of such a subject in Canada or the U.S. to represent a neutral insider's viewpoint, based on a North American Chinese organization's official Chinese-language records.  Lai, David Chuenyan, Chinese Community Leadership: Case Study of Victoria in Canada, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co., 2010.  Preorder from  www.worldscibooks.com/eastasianstudies/7622.html
Cast Iron Bells in North American Chinese Temples
西北角寺庙法器 – 生铁钟, 云板, 鼎炉

China, unlike Europe, traditionally made bells from iron as well as bronze.  The secret was high-carbon "white" (gray-brown on the outside but silvery white when freshly broken) cast iron, which Chinese foundrymen had discovered by 400 BC, almost 1700 years before European iron makers began producing it.  White cast iron, with a carbon content higher than 4%, is brittle when thin and extremely hard--too hard to file or cut except by gem-working methods.  On the other hand, it is easy to cast, much cheaper than bronze, and has a property that is unique among the various kinds of iron: due to a low damping capacity, it rings with a clear, sustained note when struck.  Like high-tin bronze and unlike most other metals and alloys, it makes excellent bells.

Bells of white cast iron had long been common in China, although still rare in Europe, when Chinese immigrants first arrived in North America in the 19th century.  The low price of cast iron was attractive to early immigrants who wished to build a Taoist or Buddhist temple, who did not have money to burn, and who felt that a good bell and drum were essential for temple worship.  Iron bells had another advantage.  Their surfaces were so hard that it was almost impossible to alter inscriptions, including the names of donors, that had been cut into the face of the mold in which the bell was cast.

 
1.  a suspension loop in the shape of an animal with splayed-out legs, representing the sprue through which the molten iron was poured into the mold;
2.  a dome-shaped shoulder, sometimes with purpose-made holes and raised lines where the different parts of the mold were joined before casting;
3.  a vertical body for percussion, with cast-in inscriptions that include (a) a credit line giving the names of donors; (b) the date of manufacture, (c) a blessing (usually fengdiao yushun, guotai minan  风调雨顺, 国泰民安 "wind abated, rain calmed, nation at peace, the people secure"); and (d) the weight of the bell and the name of the workshop that made it
4.  an out-turned skirt at the bottom, sometimes scalloped
Other temple furnishings too were often made of white cast iron.  At temples in China itself, large cast iron incense burners are common, as are cast iron statues, small pagodas, pans, and flat gongs.  As shown below, several such objects exist in surviving North American temples.

The following list is not yet complete.  The editors would appreciate information about any relevant objects they may have missed.
Temple Name

Tianhou Temple San Francisco



Oroville Temple California



Bok Kai Temple Marysville, California. 




Tam Kung Temple Victoria, British Columbia


Kong Chow TempleSan Francisco


Won Lim Temple Weaverville, California
Object & Date

Bell, 1874
同治十三年
季冬吉旦


Large tripod censer, 1875



Bell, 1882
光绪八年
壬午孟冬



Bell. 1887
光绪十三年
孟秋吉旦 


Bell, 1909 宣统元年
仲秋吉日

Cloud Plate Gong, no date
Made by & for

Xinchang Foundry for Three Deities Shrine
信昌炉造/三圣殿


Shengji Foundry at
Chanshan 禅山盛记炉造
[Foshan 佛山]


Xinchang Foundry for All
Deities Temple
信昌炉造/列圣宫



No foundry named, made
for the deified Tam Kung
谭公仙圣爷爷


Made by Hexing Foundry for Kong Chow Old Temple
合兴炉造/岡州古庙

Xinchang Foundry
信昌炉造
Individuals

沐恩弟子
张琦玉, 温盘, 戴廷斌, 戴发戴廷祯, 戴二戴泰安, 温六仝敬送
8 male donors with three surnames

27 donors with 11 surnames



风调雨顺国泰民安
沐恩弟子 
黄长光, 林阿富,伍王华仝人敬
3 male donors with different surnames

风调雨顺国泰民安
沐恩弟子
骆拔 陞, 何申清, 邓维绍, 福绵
堂, 魏泗, 俆清华, 等仝敬造

风调雨顺国泰民安



日, 月, no names
Foshan ("Buddha Hill"), southwest of Guangzhou (or Canton), was a busy industrial town known for its foundries and ceramics (click here to see Foshan opium pipes).  Many of the cast iron temple objects still to be seen in southern China were made there.  All three of the foundries listed above were in Foshan.  The Xinchang 信昌foundry seems to have been especially popular: its products are reported in Chinatowns in Hui-an (Vietnam), Penang (Malaysia), and Innisfail (Australia) as well as at the above three temples in California.  In Foshan itself a cast 3-legged toad sculpture bears the name of Xinchang, and in 1870 the same foundry cast a large tripod censer for the City God temple in Luoding, Guangdong province.   
Iron temple bells usually have four parts:
Tam Kung Temple, Victoria, B.C.               Won Lim Temple, Weaverville, California       Kong Chow Temple, San Francisco
加拿大域多利谭公庙 加州雲林庙           三藩市岡州古庙