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Date(s)： 2025/06/26
Time： 10:00~12:00
Venue： Archives 2nd Conference Hall
Host： 喬舒亞‧弗里曼教授（本所助研究員）
Speaker：Prof. Paul R. Katz (Distinguished research fellow, IMH, AS)
Disscussant： Prof. 蔡龍保（台北大學歷史學系）
Organizer： IMH
This paper explores the social and historical circumstances that contributed to the creation and sustenance of Hakka pilgrimage networks at the Lianzuoshan Guanyin Temple (蓮座山觀音亭), situated on the outskirts of the town of Daxi 大溪, Taoyuan City. Founded during the late eighteenth century, this site’s location along northern Taiwan’s tea and camphor trade routes resulted in its development into a thriving pilgrimage center for Hakka natives of Taoyuan City and Hsinchu County, especially women pilgrims who journey there to perform healing and other rituals related to their needs or those of their families. My research has endeavored to assess the significance of these networks from two different perspectives. The first identifies key historical actors (particularly Hakka elites) who shaped the formation and transformation over time of the Guanyin Temple’s connections to a wide variety of constituencies. The second engages with theories about space, especially the vibrant interaction between people and sacred sites, to assess how pilgrimages to the Guanyin Temple provide Hakka worshippers with profound feelings of well-being. Such emotions, which Tuan Yi-Fu 段義孚 (1930-2022) defines as “topophilia” (affective bonds between people and places), result from family members enjoying time together while recalling similar moments from their childhood or stories told by their forebears.