Must-see Hakka architecture
In the local Hakka communities visitors should not miss the Bo Gong (Earth God) culture. Every such place of worship is a work of art, be it in the form of a simple “spirit stone,” a small shrine, or a “shrine within a temple,” and whether located outside a house, under a tree, at the roadside or in the middle of a field.
“There are a total of 238 shrines, with 340 Bo Gong statues.” These are the numbers from Peng Hung Yuan’s survey of Dahu Township. Along the “Bo Gong Road” at Dawo in Daliao Village, near the north entrance to the Laoguanlu Trail, there are ten Bo Gong shrines in just four kilometers. Dawo’s Fude Temple is an old shrine that has been upgraded into “shrine within a temple” by being raised up onto a platform inside a newer temple built of reinforced concrete. Another Bo Gong temple in the same neighborhood, located under a chinaberry tree (Melia azedarach), is designed with great simplicity, with a slightly upturned swallowtail roof ridge, stone block walls, and a stone slab altar.
The Guishan Fude Shrine, also in Daliao Village, is more elaborate. Under a banyan tree, the shrine has a niche with a memorial tablet dedicated to Bo Gong. There are decorative bas-relief carvings on the swallowtail roof ridge and on the front, while the roof and eaves have features such as guidai (embellished smaller ridges that extend out from the main ridge), semi-cylindrical tiles, ornamental eave tiles, and “rain curtains.” The stone slab altar has an ancient feel, while the kneeling stones really test the knees of believers.
Within a one-kilometer radius of the Sanliangsan parking lot one can visit the old home of Tu Min-heng (writer of the classic Hakka folk song “Kejia Bense,” meaning “The Character of the Hakka”), take a look at traditional three-sided Hakka residential compounds or some newly created land art, and explore one of Taiwan’s few well-preserved irrigation channels built by our ancestors out of hewn stone.
Dahu in is an agricultural township, famous throughout Taiwan for its strawberries and Asian pears. In recent years farmers have been growing the local ‘Baodao Ganlu’ Asian pear variety by grafting, and these large, round, juicy fruits, harvested in summer and autumn, make excellent gifts at Mid-Autumn Festival. Meanwhile, agricultural agencies are also encouraging farmers to grow Indian gooseberry (Phyllanthus emblica).
A traditional three-sided Hakka residential compound.