Fu-Der Temple,Protecting the Land and the Residents

Fu-Der Temple, Protecting the Land and the Residents

A humorous of the small local temples,called Fu-Der Temple, located on everywhere of Taiwan , especially on Taoyuan which as  near our neighborhood ,the distance of each temple only  1/2 Km . We live on The White Horse Cottage closed to one else.There are gathering the aged under the shadow of a great tree to play chess game or gossip about the passed hard time. They said ,the temple was supported by the farmer

Chen who had eight sons enough laboratory to rent a large amount lands to product, but in that time 60-70% of the harvest must paid for the landlord .Since 1950the government Land Policy announced the new law was 37.5%belonged to the landlord and the farmers provided 62.5%, then the fortune was turned over. 1953the Government published that the true workers on the land is the Priority to get the right own the land and the land price was paid with the crop in ten years. Then farmer Chen became a landlord and thanksgiving came from the God .

The small Fu-Der Temple was built to worship the God of the land,people call him Granpa and the Hakka people call him elder Grandpa with respecting. In early time, it closed to a district named The White Horse Cottage ,the main residents are the teachers and the officers ,though  kindergarten,elementary,junior school,high school ,commercial school are sited near by. And in front of the temple,the original large farm and wide field were disappeared by buildings instead. The suburbs are rolling ahead to a developing city center. The livelihood is more convenient ,beautiful and artificial.

Recently, the economic depression was associated with jobs lost, bad mood, criminal cases up,but the temples are appeal to common folk who feel be protected in peaceful and hopeful .

福德祠，保護土地和居民

福德祠土地公廟是多得數不清的地方小廟，散落在台灣毎個角落，尤其桃園特別多，就如我們社區附近，每半公里就有一座，我們居住區就有一座專屬的白馬莊福德祠。

這裡每日都會聚集許多老人家在老榕樹下下棋，天南地北聊天，也聊過去的艱辛歲月。他們説這座土地公廟主要是陳家支持的。陳家原是佃農有八個兒子，足夠的勞動力讓他們不辭辛勞承租了大片農地耕作，在那個年代，60-70%的收成必須繳交給地主。自從一九五〇年政府土地政策宣布新法令「三七五減租」，地主最多祇能拿收成的37.5%，而農民可分配到62.5%，就此翻轉了佃農的命運。至一九五三年政府公佈「耕者有其田」，即實際耕作者可優先取得土地所有權，地價以穀物分十年攤還。陳家佃農因此成了地主，衷心感謝神明護佑。

這座福德祠興建來祭拜保護一方水土的土地神，人們稱祂土地公，客家人敬稱祂伯公。它緊鄰的社區名為白馬莊，主要居民為公教人員，緣於附近就有幼稚園，小學，國中，高中和商業職業學校。廟前原來的一大片水稻田和池塘田野，逐漸被建築物取代而消失。郊區迅速翻滾成不斷發展的都會中心。生活圈更便利更美麗也更人工化。

近年，經濟不景氣影響了失業，情緒失衡，犯罪率上升，但是福德祠還是緊密的吸引一般民眾，人們感覺有拜有保庇，相信土地公會守護他們安寧和給予希望。