Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple
The Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple will be located in southern Taiwan in the island's third most populous city with over 2.75 million residents. Taiwan's second temple was announced on October 3, 2021, by President Russell M. Nelson.
The first temple constructed in the country, the Taipei Taiwan Temple, was dedicated in 1984. There are currently more than 62,000 Latter-day Saints who attend approximately 100 congregations in Taiwan.[1] Missionaries first arrived in Taiwan in 1956.
Location
The Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple is currently in the planning stages. On November 28, 2022, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced its location. It will be built on a 1.26-acre site located near Dachang Road and Dehua Street, Niaosong District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 10,900 square feet.
Groundbreaking
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints broke ground for the Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple on November 25, 2023. Elder Benjamin M. Z. Tai, Asia Area President of the Church, presided and offered the dedicatory prayer. Approximately 500 members and friends of the Church, including Niaosong District Mayor Hsueh-Hung Lu, along with other community and interfaith leaders, attended the ceremony physically, while others viewed the proceedings via an online broadcast.
“As a young boy, I never would have imagined that one day, a temple will be built here, because temples always seemed so distant and few in number,” recalled Elder Tai who spent a few years of his childhood in Kaohsiung.
For nearly 40 years, Latter-day Saints in southern part of the island would organize temple trips once a month and travel all day to Taipei by bus for temple worship. Elder Tai said this added temple on the island is due to the “remarkable legacy of faith and dedication” of Church pioneers who “at great personal sacrifice, helped to establish the Church here in southern Taiwan.”
Elder Tai added, “Temple groundbreakings remind us of the need to dedicate ourselves to the purpose for which we are here on earth and to our important role in the Lord’s work of salvation.”[2]
