Tag Archives: Taiwanese folk religion

Incense and Temples

AGE: 21

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 4/19/25

LANGUAGE: English, Chinese

NATIONALITY: American, Taiwanese 

OCCUPATION: Student

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: Los Angeles 

Text

Interviewer: Does your culture have any stories of superstitions or superstitions themselves?

AC: “Don’t leave chopsticks straight up and down in rice because it looks like incense sticks which are usually reserved for rituals at temples.”

Context

Before the question asked above, I had also asked AC the following question:

Interviewer: Are there any distinct festivals or rituals you grew up around or attending when you were growing up? Are there any now? 

AC: [she lists out] “Chinese Lunar New Year, Autumn Festival, Taiwanese Folk Religion events… [she adds context] FYI my immediate family are 7th day adventist Christians but my family in Taiwan worships a local folk religion, and they’re very religious. My family owns and operates several temples in our hometown Tainan, Taiwan.”

Interviewer: What is it like for your family to own several temples? Are there any distinct rituals or celebrations your family does at the temples?

She then proceeds to answer the question, but this part of her answer is the context of the proceeding text above:

AC: “…what you usually do is…when you arrive at the temple, you light incense and then place it like up and down into this bowl/stand. Then you pray standing up…”

Interpretation

My immediate family and I are the least religious people. Technically, we’re Christian, and when I was younger my mother, sister, and I would go to Korean church, but we stopped going once my sister and I started playing sports. Although AC is not particularly religious herself, and her family is part of a completely different religion than their extended, AC has in-depth knowledge and experience with temples and how folk religion affects and works within smaller communities. The concept of bad luck by placing chopsticks straight up in rice connects with how her family’s temples operate. Why would you pray if it’s not in the proper setting and with the proper intention? My guess as to why it’s bad luck is because it might attract bad spirits or maybe upset the spirits that people pray to. It connects again to what we learned in lecture about the importance or folklore behind up and down.

God’s Tour

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 58
Occupation: Business owner
Residence: Kaohsiung/Shanghai
Performance Date: Apr 20 , 2019
Primary Language: Chinese

Context:

The collector interviewed the informant for Taiwanese folklores. The informant is the father of the collector. He was born and raised in a town by Kaohsiung, a city in the southern part of Taiwan.

 

Main piece:

绕境  In Pinyin: rào jìng

Literally: tour around the region

Rao Jing is the practice of a particular god enshrined in one shrine going out for a tour to visit other shrines or temples that enshrine the same god. The most common Rao Jing is Rao Jing of Mazu.

Taiwanese people, just like people living in other coastal regions in Southern China and some parts of Southeast Asia, have strong belief in the folk goddess Mazu. She is the major god who protects fishermen on the sea. There are countless shrines for Mazu in Taiwan.

Exchange activities are held among different shrines. When clergies in the shrines ask for the will of the goddess and it is revealed that she want to go on a tour, they will carry the goddess (the idol) outside to visit other Mazu shrines. The goddess usually visits multiple shrines during one tour.

When a guest god arrives at another shrine, the clergies at the local shrine and the believers living around the shrine prepare welcome banquets. Banquets are for the god and also for the people. The guest god will be worshiped by locals, and all the party accompanying the guest god will be served, including the clergies, the workers such as the bearers of the god’s litter (the chair vehicle) and the believers who follow the god from the original place.

 

The informant never participates such practice. He has only witnessed it.

 

Collector’s thoughts:

I witnessed once or twice such practice in my hometown when I was little, but I didn’t know the name of it until the informant (my father) told me this time. It is an interesting practice in folk religious system that facilitates communication between regional communities.

It is also important to note that in the vernacular religious system in Taiwan (or maybe say in Chinese culture), even though different shrines worship the same god, there is a distinction between the individuals of that particular god enshrined in different places.