Tam Kung Temple in Victoria is the country’s oldest Chinese temple.
On Sept. 23, it’s holding a fundraiser for much-needed restorations.
Nora Butz has been the president of the temple for more than 10 years. She said the roof and windows are leaking, ruining the floors and balcony.
“It’s because of the age of the building,” said Butz. “So we were facing this daunting task, and then the engineers came back with a $650,000 cost.”
That grand total is intimidating, but fortunately for Tam Kung Temple, the Victoria City Heritage Trust has dedicated $200,000 – but only after the work is already completed.
“We have to pay everything upfront first, and they reimburse us after the work is done,” Butz said.
The Victoria Foundation also recently donated to the temple, and there was a dinner held by Charlayne Thornton-Joe, a former city councillor in Victoria and facilities coordinator at the Chinese Canadian Museum.
“We haven’t actually received any money from them yet, but that’s close to $10,000,” said Butz.
Butz is hopeful about the upcoming September fundraiser as well.
“Hopefully, we’ll raise that same amount again,” she said.
The Autumn Moon Festival Banquet is hosted by the Victoria Chinatown Lioness Lion Club, and all proceeds will be going to the temple.
Tickets are $80 before Aug. 15, then they will become $88. Participants will be able to dine on an eight-course Chinese dinner, including a popular treat called moon cakes.
Aside from delicious food, there will be prizes, an auction and raffle items. The event takes place at Don Mee Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown.
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Butz is grateful for the help of the community and all of the publicity.
“(The temple is) the best-kept secret in Victoria; nobody knows it’s there,” Butz said. “Except for the Chinese community and even some of them didn’t know we had a temple there because we’ve just kept a really low profile before so we never had much publicity. So now that was coming out and basically begging people to help us to keep this building alive.”
Tam Kung Temple was founded in 1876, but a fire in 1911 led to the building getting rebuilt in 1912. The temple is under the guardianship of the Yen Wo Society, which was established in Victoria by Hakka immigrants from the Guangdong Province in China, in 1905.
“The original building was purchased by the society, which was made up of just a group of immigrants that just pooled their money and said, ‘Well, let’s build this temple here,’” said Butz.
There is no GoFundMe yet, but there is a donation section on the Tam Kung Temple website, along with a Q.R. code reader for easy access.
“We’re all volunteers. We’re just trying to keep our heritage as the oldest temple in Canada,” Butz said.
“We don’t want it to collapse or for anything to happen to it.”