Tou Tei Temple of Patane District

Located amongst the old areas of Macao, the Patane district is largely populated by historic buildings dated back to the past decades. The most historic of all is the demolished Patane Fort and the Tou Tei (Earth God) Temple.

The temple is seated next to Rua do Patane at the foot of Phoenix Hill (Pigeons’ Nest Hill in Chinese) and used to be facing the sea before land reclamation in the Interior Harbor. It was constructed in between 1736 to 1795, initially in the layout of a small shrine affixed with a horizontal plaque bearing the Chinese characters“永福古社”(Shrine of Eternal Fortune). As more and more believers came for worship, the populace raised fund to build a temple to enshrine the Earth God. Over the years, it underwent expansion at different periods to become the first Tou Tei Temple in Macao. A pantheon of deities, besides the Earth God and his wife, are enshrined in the Temple, like Kum Iam (Goddess of Mercy), Seak Kam Dong from Taishan Mountain and the divine guardian Skanda (known as Vai Tuo in Chinese). It is an exemplary of mutual tolerance between Buddhism and Taoism.