Ejisu Besease Shrine

Ejisu Besease Shrine, also known as the Yaw Tano Shrine or Tano Yaw Shrine, is a traditional Asante shrine house (Abosomfie) in the village of Ejisu Besease, in the Ejisu Municipal District of Ghana's Ashanti Region. It is dedicated to the deity Tano Yaw, representing the Tano river, and is cared for by the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB).

The shrine is one of the ten Asante Traditional Buildings inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1980 under criterion (v). UNESCO describes these buildings as the last remaining testimony of the great Asante civilisation; several still serve a religious function, and their upkeep requires substantial conservation work. The ten sites are Abirim, Asawase, Asenemaso, Bodwease, Ejisu Besease, Adarko Jachie, Edwenase, Kentinkrono, Patakro and Saaman. The buildings were acquired by the GMMB between 1960 and 1970 and scheduled as National Monuments under Ghanaian law.

The shrine is built around a central courtyard, with four structures in all: three open-sided rooms with raised floors that served as spaces for drummers, singers and cooking, and a closed room holding the shrine, screened by decorated walls or open-work panels. Construction is a timber and bamboo framework filled with clay and mud plaster under thatch, and the walls carry bas-relief decoration with interlacing geometric bands, animal motifs and Adinkra symbols. The shrine is reported to have been consulted by Yaa Asantewaa I, Queen Mother of Ejisu, before the 1900 War of the Golden Stool, and its first priestess is said to have been Yaa Kyaa.

For visitors, Ejisu Besease is the practical focus of the UNESCO listing: it is described as the only one of the ten buildings reconstructed using traditional designs and methods, the only one officially open to the public, and the site that houses a museum. GMMB lists opening hours of 9:00am to 4:30pm for its Asante Traditional Buildings sites.

The shrine stands about 20.8 km along the Kumasi–Accra road (N6), roughly 20 km east of Kumasi city centre. From Ejisu Junction, a short shared taxi ride or about a 15-minute walk down a marked side road reaches the entrance. Public transport from Kumasi is possible. No online advance booking exists; the GMMB head office in Accra can be contacted on +233 302 221633 or +233 302 221635, though no site-specific phone, email or booking channel was found. Visitors are advised to confirm current access, dress modestly, ask before photographing, and treat the site as living sacred heritage.