Haunted Temple in Taiwan

S.S is one of my suitemates. We were also friends in high school. She was born in the states but moved to Taiwan for school. Her family is Taiwanese. As an individual, she is really interested in sports, and recently, while in college, she has also become really interested in Christianity. While participating in these many things, she has experienced many traditions that are expressed as folklore.

S.S told me an event that when she was back in Taiwan, she would always hike. She used to live in the mountains so hiking is very convenient for her. On her hiking trail, there would be a shortcut when coming back home, but her dad would prohibit going through the shortcut. There would be a temple someone can come across to if they go through the shortcut, and inside the temple, S.S’s dad would mentioned that there were dead people in there and that they worship evil god or “not very positive spirts.” S.S heard about this from her dad while her dad heard this from the neighbors, and thus, S.S would have never gone through the shortcut.

Because of this “myth,” S.S started to become more cautious about temples. Since she was young when she first heard about this, for her, this myth would just be something to be afraid of.

In this myth of the haunted temple, the temple seems to be the main focus, as well as the dead people worshiping the evil gods inside. There is also the significance of the shortcut, as the bad place happens to only be around the shortcut but the just out there in plain site along the normal route or street.

My thoughts on this myth was that I considered this to be a scare tactic most of all. There actually could be dead people inside the temple, but personally, I don’t think ghosts exists (which I’m assuming the dead people are).Apparently no one called the dead people as ghosts, they were just known as the “dead people.” Overall, I also think that this myth falls into the beliefs that bad things happen when someone takes a shortcut. Usually, in stories, if someone doesn’t go along their usual route and ends up going through a shortcut, they would encounter something bad.