In Pingtung County, there is a unique factory which produces customized temples of various sizes. With concrete molding techniques, it takes less time and money than traditional methods to build a temple. The factory owner told us that he wanted to provide people with more places to worship, and his business is now also exporting ready-made temples overseas.
Workers in the Chuanso temple factory are busy painting the temple roof. In southern Taiwan's Pingtung County, factory owner Lin Fu-Chun provides his customers with ready-made temples of various sizes and statues of different gods. Lin has worked in temple construction for almost 50 years. When he was still building big temples, he always thought about making worship easier by offering people more convenient places. He then started his temple business in 1993.
==LIN FU-CHUN, chairman of Chuanso Co. Ltd==
In the past we used to build the big temples. As I got older, we thought about how to build temples in a factory. It's more convenient for some people who need a smaller temple where they can worship.
While building a temple with traditional bricks and cement usually takes around 6 months, 78-year-old Lin's factory needs just over 6 weeks. Moreover, Lin's concrete mold temple is 40 percent cheaper due to the simplified manufacturing process. Depending on the size and detail, temple prices range from NT$40,000 to NT$2 million. Temples dedicated to the Earth God and Wealth God are especially popular because they are the most popular deities in Taiwan.
==LIN FU-CHUN, chairman of Chuanso Co. Ltd==
No matter which god, there are always people who want to worship, especially the Earth God who is most popular. So people want to buy a temple to be able to worship their gods conveniently. In our religion, worshipping gods is a comfort.
The delivery staff dispatch the building around the island on trucks and put them together for buyers. Lin says his business now also exports overseas, bringing Taiwan culture to China, Singapore and elsewhere in Asia.
TRANSLATED BY:ARIEL HSIEH