就早期華人宗教文物往東南亞地區的產銷脈絡來說,澳門是明清產品外銷至南洋的重要地點之一,具有其研究上的戰略意義。不過因受其賭場盛名之累,澳門寺廟傳世文物的重要性卻被學界忽視。由於澳門鄰近廣州與佛山,可視為粵系寺廟文物的典型;同時,不論是當地宗教禮俗傳統,或寺廟文物擺設、形制與其使用功能,多維持在早期的使用情境,諸多因素皆足以提供吾人有更多的研究深入空間。根據統計,澳門現階段20餘平方公里的狹小面積,擁有百年以上的寺廟近40座,足見寺廟是澳門人生活不可或缺的精神寄託。除了少數建於明代,其餘多成立於清代,迄今仍保存有完整的早期文物。透過澳門寺廟文物形制與功能的分析,可以發現它們反映著與臺灣不同的風格與產銷狀況,也說明華人信仰差異性如何表現在宗教文物上。兩地所呈現的不同華人宗教文物來源,也可和海外東南亞華人的宗教文物整體面貌互相為證。
As far as production and marketing is concerned, early Chinese religious artifacts were exported to Southeast Asia where Macao is one of the most important importers. This business fact gives Macao a strategic significance in this research. Macao, a city economically well known for being dependent on its gambling, however, has been ignored by the academic circle for their rich Chinese temple artifacts preserved in this place. Geographically speaking, as close to Guangzhou and Foshan, Macao was regarded as an important place to preserve the typical temple artifacts of Yue culture. Besides, from whichever point of view, concerning the local religious ritual customs or temple artifacts culture in terms of arrangement, shape, structure and function, most of these early artifacts are still preserved intact as in the early times. To explore those many factors as mentioned above in more depth can benefit us. According to the statistics, Macao has a narrow territory of 20 square kilometers currently but has preserved nearly 40 temples with more than 100 year of history. This shows that temples became an indispensable spiritual part in Macao people's living. Except for a few temples established in Ming dynasty, the rest temples were built in Qing dynasty and these temples preserved intact the entire early artifacts. By analyzing the issues of shape, structure and function, we found that the artifacts in Macao temples represent different styles and production-marketing conditions compared to those in Taiwan, a fact which also reflects the differences in respective religion system. To study the sources of artifacts preserved in Macao and Taiwan also complements our findings on religious artifacts culture of overseas Southeast Asian Chinese.