A tour of Taiwan wouldn't be complete if you didn't visit one or more of it's 12 thousand Buddhist temples. Whilst I'm not religious, I enjoy going to temples in Taiwan because it has a fantastic vibe. Often the temples are either very simple but has an interesting history, or quite glamorous because it's famous and wealthy. Today I want to show you a latter, called Zhèn Lán Gōng. I've actually blogged about it previously, (three times actually) because it's the home of Taiwan's largest annual pilgrimage. I'll show you around the temple and tell you one or two interesting and weird facts about temple culture. Ready?
Zhèn Lán Gōng was first established in 1730 and this temple was built and finally rebuilt in 1988. As to its wealth, a few years ago there was some financial scandal over the organisation's improper use of funds, and a figure of around USD60m worth of assets was officially announced! That's a loooot of money for an organisation that doesn't generate any income. No wonder it can afford to build such a lavish temple including all the intricate wood carvings on the ceiling and main altar.
Taiwanese are a very religious bunch and often go to pray at temples. No matter whether you are young or old, female or male, you will always see people from all walks of life at the temples. Whenever they have a major (sometimes even a minor) decision to make, need to take an exam, or even going away for a trip, they may come to pray at the temple to get guidance or luck from the gods.
Normally, devotees will bring some offerings with them, like some special kind of paper to burn for the gods. They're different types of hell money. And sometimes they bring snacks as well. These are placed in the long table in the middle of the temple.
For the really dedicated devotees who have enough time on their hands, they will fold those pieces of paper into a pretty bundle like a wheel. I don't know what they represent, but I'm sure there's some sort of meaning behind it.
And for the sporadic devotees, who hadn't prepared any offering, one can always pick up a pre packed bundle. They're available at the temple for a small donation but no one really minds if you don't make a donation, after all, its only a drop on the ocean to them compared to USD60m.
As I was watching everything that was going on in the temple, I noticed a little desk manned by a volunteer granny. These bits of yellow paper has some sort of spell written on them, it's supposed to fend off the evil and protect you. In the old days, if people were very ill, or think they're possessed by evil spirits, family members would go to the temple to pray for their good health. The priest would write a spell on a bit of paper like this. You'd then take it home, burn it and let the ashes fall into a bowl of water. Want to guess what happens next?
Yes, the person will drink the water with the ashes in it! That's supposed to cure the illness or get rid of the evil spirits depending on what spell was cast. I kid you not! My eldest sister said my granny fed her with a bowl of spell ashes when she was a little girl 😄
Here, granny has folded the spells into a neat little button. They look real cute and I took one, not to burn and drink of course! I put it in my sewing box. Kind of random I know, but I found it in my pocket when I needed to repair something the other day, and figured the sewing box is as good as any other place. Maybe it will protect me from the needle demon when I do my sewing.
I hope you enjoyed this little visit to a Taiwanese temple today. Next time I'll show you another one. One that's much smaller, had no other visitor when I was there, and I'll talk about how they do fortune telling.