A small but mighty board is celebrating a national second-place finish that helped put Victoria’s historic Tam Kung Temple on the map.
The temple finished second place in an online contest that closed Thursday (April 17) – where residents were called on to visit and vote daily – winning $10,000 from the National Trust for Canada.
The only other B.C. site among the 12 up for voting, historic O’Keefe Ranch in Vernon, finished first, scoring $50,000. Sharon Assembly Church in Yarmouth, NS, finished third with a prize of $5,000.
The Victoria temple is run by a small board “so much buoyed by the support,” said Gayle Nye, the temple volunteer who spearheaded the awareness campaign. “We appreciate people and the support of the community. It was just huge, it warmed our hearts.”
The historic space filling the top floor of a building in Victoria’s Chinatown traces its origins to the 1860s when a Hakka miner placed a statue of deity Tam Kung in a wooden roadside shrine by the Johnson Street ravine.
When the pioneer left to seek gold rush glory, Hakka speakers took care of the statue, founding the Yen Wo Society in 1905. They created the temple and purchased the property in 1911. A couple of fires and a century later, the temple remains up 52 steps at 1713 Government St.
Nye credits Next Great Save, National Trust for Canada and sponsor Ecclesiastical Insurance, who provided support such as media training and templates to help them amplify their story. While the contest provided the much-appreciated funding, the added exposure is proving to be just as powerful.
She’s seen old friends revisit the temple and met many new ones in recent days. They also heard from people up Island, across the prairies and as far off as Toronto and Virgina, both from the Chinese community and others.
Nye said that support came from places they hadn’t initially thought to look.
“We’re happy to have connected and found other things in common, a culture and history,” Nye said.
It’s a path they’ll continue on as the Yen Wo Society plans to use the funds to enhance accessibility, education and cultural preservation. Work includes plans to build a reception and interpretive area to serve as a hub for cultural exchange, guided tours and educational outreach.
“I think that’s very much needed if it’s to open up to younger generations and, in particular, to the broader population,” Nye said. “As recently as yesterday, someone said, ‘Well, I’m not Chinese, could I visit?’ I said absolutely. The temple’s always been open and welcoming to whoever comes.”
As Canada’s oldest Chinese temple, in the nation’s oldest Chinatown, it was named a national historic site in February. It opens daily at 10 a.m.
“It isn’t only for the Chinese community,” Nye emphasized. “There’s so much common interest ... there is a reverence to ancestors and those who’ve come before, and history in general.
“There’s this sense of having a place that's peaceful and a bit of respite from what’s going on elsewhere … it’s a place for contemplation and just being quiet in ourselves.”
