Bok Kai Temple (translated from the Chinese as Northern Stream Temple) is a Cantonese Daoist temple established by the first Chinese immigrants to California on the southwest corner of the intersection of First and D Streets in Marysville, California. Listed as a California Historical Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places, Bok Kai Temple has served the Chinese immigrant population since the gold rush of 1854. The original building was destroyed in 1866, with the present-day temple dating from 1880. Since its establishment, Bok Kai has served as a center for cultural and religious activities for the Chinese community in the surrounding Marysville area. In addition to the temple and meeting hall, Bok Kai Temple is also the locus of an annual parade, festival, 5K run, and a pageant, which draw thousands of visitors from all over the region.
Bok Kai Temple is the only Daoist temple in the United States whose principal deity is Bok Eye, or Water God of the North, who oversees rain, waterways, and water systems. Bok Eye controls rain and prevents flooding in Marysville, which is located at the confluence of two rivers, the Yuba River and the Feather River. Legend states that it has not yet rained once during a Bok Kai parade because of his patronage.
Bok Kai was originally built in Marysville because land sold to the Chinese immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century tended to be the least desirable land, in this case, land that was highly prone to flooding. Bok Kai Temple’s unique location overlooking rivers susceptible to flooding played a part in Bok Eye’s eventual prominence as a deity. The Daoist artwork located on murals on the walls of Bok Kai Temple have received much acclaim, and the quality of the artwork is said to rival some of the best Asian art in galleries today. Because of these murals and other more ancient artifacts in Bok Kai Temple’s possession, the Chinese community in Marysville has been active in restoring Bok Kai Temple and cataloguing its objects.
Bok Kai Temple is unique among American Daoist temples since the majority of Daoist temples are dedicated to the worship of Guan Gong, the primary Daoist deity responsible for subduing demons and protecting homes. The legend of Bok Eye is that he was once a powerful butcher who, deciding he no longer wanted to kill living beings, decided to throw away his meat cleaver. However, afraid someone would step on the knife, he cut his own stomach open and wrapped the cleaver with his bowels to prevent anyone from stepping on the sharp edge. In compassion, Gun Yam (Guanyin) then led him to the Western Paradise where he received enlightenment and became the Northern deity. Though Bok Kai Temple identifies as Daoist, it is not unusual for Chinese temples to mix Buddhist and Daoist deities together (along with Confucian gods), or even, as in the case of Bok Eye, to mix religious faiths in stories. Bok Eye can therefore serve as both a Daoist deity and a Buddhist icon.
The entrance to the Bok Kai Chinese Temple in downtown Marysville, California. The Temple was founded by Chinese immigrants in 1854, during the height of the Gold Rush. The present structure dates from 1880. (Anthony Dunn/Alamy Stock Photo)
In addition to having Bok Eye as its primary deity, Bok Kai Temple also distinguishes itself as being one of the oldest and continuously used Daoist temples in the United States. The second day of the second month of the Chinese lunar calendar is Bok Eye’s birthday, known more colloquially as Bomb Day. It is customary to light a hundred small “bombs” that when detonated, shower the audience with a flurry of good fortune rings that everyone in the crowd scrambles to receive. It is said that the person who finds a Bok Kai ring will have good fortune for the rest of the year. Sometimes a person who finds a ring will sell it to others, and then those that purchase the ring will in turn make a donation to the temple for the honor to keep it. Now, the bombs are made locally, as they are no longer available in mainland China. In addition to the bombs themselves, there is usually a lion dance, firecrackers, and a steady stream of visitors to the temple who bring offerings of food, incense, money, prayers, and gifts to Bok Eye. It is said that more than five thousand people visit Bok Kai Temple during the annual celebration, not including the other popular events of the 5K run and parade. Bok Eye’s birthday always falls on the second day of the second month, except when Bomb Day officially falls on a weekday, in which case the festivities are usually held the following weekend.
Though Bok Eye is the most well-known deity because of the festivities celebrated in his name, the temple is dedicated to nine additional deities: Sing Moo, the goddess of ocean travelers and sailors; Gun Yam (Guanyin), the goddess of compassion (originally Buddhist, she often crosses into the Daoist pantheon); Wa-Ho, the god of good health; Gon Gung (Quan Gong), the deity of literature and a popular god for good grades on exams; Yuk Fung/Tai Sing, the secretary of state (he is a kind of governor god: Chinese concepts of deity entail politics); Hoo Gee, the earth deity; Ts’ai Shen or Choy Bok, the god of wealth; and two deities represented by name tablets: Gum Far, the Gold Flower Lady, popular for fertility and pregnant mothers; and Tai Sui, the god of time. Thus, Bok Kai Temple meets the many and varied needs of the local Chinese community. It is common to see food offerings, joss sticks, candles, and money offered to the various gods along with prayers written on paper from the various pilgrims who visit the temple throughout the year. Those seeking a response to prayer will usually write the prayer request on a piece of paper, which is then burned on the altar to the deities, and then interpreted by the local Daoist priest through consultation of the divination sticks. Once given the answer to the prayer, the petitioner makes a donation to the temple in gratitude.
Bok Kai Temple has also served as a local meeting hall for the Marysville Chinese community. Early immigrants to Marysville were Cantonese (from southern China’s Guandong province). Still to this day, the Chinese American community’s ethnic identity is reinforced through the temple and its festivities, including the parade, which features both the Bok Kai Grand Marshal and the Bok Kai Hostess. The Bok Kai Grand Marshal is usually an older and accomplished man who is central in the local Chinese American community and who is charged with officiating at the Bok Kai Parade and Bomb Day. Alongside the Grand Marshal, a young Chinese woman, usually the daughter of a wealthy and prominent Chinese American family, is chosen as “Bok Kai Royalty” and represents both her family and the community by being a queen in the parade. The pictures and biographies of both the Grand Marshal and the Hostess are featured on the Bok Kai Temple website. In this way, like the role and function of civic organizations (like the Masons) and traditional pageants, the status and clan association of certain Chinese American families is reinforced and recognized.
Tan, Amy (1952–)
Born in 1952 in Oakland, California, Amy Tan developed the idea for The Joy Luck Club on a trip to China with her Chinese immigrant mother. This novel explores the relationships of four mothers and their daughters, focusing on the tension, not simply between generations, but between Chinese immigrants and their Americanized offspring. In her work, perhaps most notably through the reference to the Moon Lady in The Joy Luck Club and to the eponymous deity in The Kitchen God’s Wife, Tan appropriates figures and motifs of traditional Chinese folklore in order to explore the identity, power, and relationships of women in ways that are often starkly untraditional. Tan is interested in exploring the tension between Chinese immigrant mothers and their thoroughly assimilated Chinese American daughters, using points of conflict to interrogate the Chinese, the American, and the feminine aspects of identity in the contemporary lives she describes.
C. Fee
The Bok Kai Parade is celebrated alongside the bomb festivities and has run since the Bok Kai Temple’s founding in the 1850s. It is also believed to be the single longest running parade in the history of California, featuring parade floats, martial artists, drummers, bands, school groups, civic organizations, and a 175-foot-long dragon, a symbol of longevity. Marysville has a long tradition of utilizing dragons and dragon dancers in the Bok Kai Parade and is currently on its fifth dragon, known as “Hong Wan Lung,” created in Hong Kong in 2009.
Candi K. Cann
See also Chinese American Mythological and Legendary Deities
Further Reading
“Bok Kai Temple.” 2008. Sacred Sites website. http://www.sacred-sites.org/saved-sacred-sites/bok-kai-temple/updates/. Accessed June 6, 2015.
“Bok Kai Temple.” 2013. Marysville Chinese Community website. http://www.bokkaitemple.com/home-1.html. Accessed June 15, 2015.
Chamberlain, Jonathan. 2009. Chinese Gods: An Introduction to Chinese Folk Religion. Hong Kong: Blacksmith Books.
Lee, Jonathan H. X., and Kathleen M. Nadeau, eds. 2010. Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 231–233.
Paddison, Joshua. 2012. American Heathens: Religion, Race, and Reconstruction in California. Berkeley, CA: Huntington Library Press and University of California Press.