From Takow to Kaohsiung

Neimen (內門) District, Kaohsiung

Neimen (內門; lit. “Inner Gate”) is a mountainous district of . It was formerly the 大傑顛社 (Mdn. Dajiedian Community) of the Makatao (馬卡道) Plains Aborigines.

Under the Japanese administration's place name reforms of 1920 {MC: presumably because they prefered two-character names], 內門 was a shortened version of the earlier 羅漢內門 (Luohanneimen), which resulted of a division of the yet earler 羅漢門 (Luohanmen) into two parts, "inner" (羅漢內門里) and "outer" (羅漢外門里) villages.

As for the origins of this 羅漢門 (Luohanmen),there are two explanations:
i) In the early years of the Zheng-family Tongning Kingdom in Taiwan, a formerly Ming-dynasty scholar Shen Guang-wen (沈光文) got in trouble for writing poems satirizing Zheng Jing (鄭經; son and successor to Xoxinga; r.1662~81), eventually escaping to what was then wild frontier country disguised in the garb of a Buddhist monk. Setting up a thatched hut, he began to take on students and bring erudition to the area.
For this his home, and then the area, became known as the Arhat’s Door (羅漢門; an Arhat* is a being who has gained insight into the Buddha nature, i.e., the true essence of existence**).
ii) A transliteration of the Makatao Plains Aboriginal name "Rohan" for the lands east of the Wushan (烏山) mountain range as far as Nanzixian River (楠梓仙溪; now called 旗山溪 Qishan River). Since the upper reaches of the Ercengxing River (二層行溪; now 二仁溪 Erren RIver) in this area are steep and rocky, and so appeared as if being guarded by a pair of arhats, Han-Chinese immigrants changed Rohan to Luohan (or, rather, the Holko pronunciation: lo-han) and added a “gate" to the name giving 羅漢門).

Statue of Zhu Yi-gui in Neimen District
(photo: Taipei TImes)

Probably the best known resident of Neimen was Zhu Yi-gui (朱一貴; 1690~1722), the so-called Duck King of Neimen, who led one of the most successful (in the short term) rebellions against the new Qing dynasty in Taiwan (more on his story: here)

*If the Chinese pronunciation luohan seems somewhat dissimilar to the original Sanskrit arhat this is perhaps because it derives from the other ancient Indian language of Pali (in use at the time that Buddhism was introduced to China), whose word arahant was transliterated as 阿羅漢 (a-luo-han), which was later simplified to 羅漢 (luo-han).

**Different Buddhist schools and traditions have differing definitions, from a being that has attained full nirvana, or, such as in the Chinese Mahayana schools, to those who have advanced along the path to Enlightenment but not reached Buddhahood. They are often depicted in groups of 10, 18, 500 &c. guarding the entrance to temples and monasteries.




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