Sanzhi Seashell Temple | 三芝貝殼廟

I have been to a lot of temples in Taiwan, but this is one of the most fascinating temples I have ever visited. The entire temple is made out of colorful seashells and coral from the sea. 

At first glance, it looks like a typical Taiwanese temple with Taoism and Confucian elements (dragons statues, pillars, etc) but then you notice that everything is made with seashells. 

Even the deities are surrounded by seashells and coral. 

The temple is located way up in the mountains in Sanzhi, New Taipei City. 

Another thing to note is that the temple kind of looks like a warehouse from the outside, it doesn't exactly look like a typical Taiwanese temple from the outside. Also, there were surprisingly a lot of young people visiting, most of them came via scooters. 

As we made our way in, I was stunned. I have never seen anything like this before. I immediately wanted to start snapping photos. The temple volunteers seemed very used to having stunned visitors. They just told us to first offer our prayers and incense sticks and then we can start snapping away. So that's what we did. 

There was a mini cave which I made sure to enter. There were paintings and mini deities inside and of course, a lot of good lighting. After I exited the temple, I started looking more closely at the seashell carving and creations on the walls, and on the ceiling. Even the lights were decorated with seashells. It was fascinating to see. 

Apparently, this temple was built roughly 30 years ago when the founder got a vision from god. The temple volunteers explained to me that it took roughly 5-6 years finish building the temple.  Only 5-6 years? That's impressive. Though I do wonder how they managed to get a hold of so many seashells and coral in that amount of time. 

The temple also just opened another branch, a more grand version of the temple right at the bottom of the mountain. It's called Sanxia seashell temple. As the new one is larger and is located at the bottom of the mountain, it would be easier to accommodate more people and easier to get to.  

How to get there: You definitely need your own vehicle or transportation to get here. If you can't get a friend to take you here, then you could call a taxi or an Uber. 

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