The triennial Wang Ye boat festival will take place this year from Oct. 10 to the early morning hours of Oct. 17 in Donggang, Pingtung County. During the Ching dynasty (1644-1912), Donggang was one of three main commercial ports in Taiwan. Today the town of 50,000 remains an important center for fishing, especially for the prized blue fin tuna, but its best days seem long behind it.
Around 80 temples dot the town, 32 of which are dedicated to the Wang Ye. Donglong Temple, the boat festival sponsor, is one of the largest and oldest. Its story is worthy of a Hollywood movie.
One day in 1706 a bundle of wood washed to shore near Donggang with timber inscribed by Lord Wen Hong. Locals, who revered Wen Hong as a spiritual guide and protector of fishermen, built a temple from the available wood. Miraculously there was just enough for the job and not a piece left over.
More miracles were to come. In 1894, the waters from a massive tidal wave flooded the town. Distraught villagers rowed out to the temple to save what they could. Finding Wen Hong’s statue had survived the rising waters, several men cradled it in their arms and carried it back outside. No sooner had they exited the temple than the roof came crashing to the ground. Afterwards, Wen Hong instructed his followers on the best place to rebuild his temple. In all the years since this site has never flooded.
At least that is the temple committee’s version of things. Some historians, however, claim that the temple began as a family shrine. By the 19th century it had become one of the largest centers of Wang Ye worship in the south. The current building likely hails from an 1887 reconstruction, though a major refurbishing from 1977-1984 gave it the multi-story look people see today.
Donglong Temple began to sponsor boat-burning festivals some time in the early 20th century. Originally, the festival was held around the Dragon Boat Festival in early summer, the customary time for plague-expelling rituals. These days, however, it is set in autumn with the date decided, or divined really, a year earlier through the casting of divination blocks.
In addition to changes to the season it is held in, the entire meaning of the festival has transformed over the years. Though dark and solemn plague-expulsion rituals remain at the heart of it, the festival functions in modern times as a prayer for peace and stability. In many ways, this transformation is matched by the changing function of the gods themselves: from plague-causing demons, to plague-busting gods, to general protectors against all calamities.
Known officially as “Ying Wang Ping-an Jidian” (“The Sacrifice of Peace and Tranquility for Welcoming the Lords”), the festival runs for eight consecutive days. Most visitors (and tens of thousands of them can be expected) will attend the first and last, but there is much to see in the interval.
The first day of the festival is known as “Welcoming the Wang Ye.” On days two to five, the five plague-busting Wang Ye are carried about town on palanquins in a ritual called “daitian xunshou” (“inspection of earth on behalf of heaven.”) Locals welcome the gods with firecrackers and music, and other temples put on performances of dance and opera. Twice a day (morning and evening), the Wang Ye are feasted with tea, cookies, fruit and other exclusively vegetarian dishes. Each dish is prepared five times (one for each Wang Ye) and must be hand-fed to the gods.
On day six, the boat is taken out of its shed in the courtyard and blessed in an elaborate ceremony. The cedar and pine vessel is a typical southern Chinese junk and this year its dimensions are 3.8 meters high, 4.2 meters wide, and 14 meters long. These vary each festival, with the exact measurements determined by a tedious divination process. A general blueprint is consulted during construction (handled by 100 local volunteer carpenters), but before work on each section of the ship can be started, the step has to be approved by Wen Hong and preceded by ritualistic ceremonies.
When construction is finished, professional painters decorate the outside with traditional colors and motifs. Thirty-six hand-carved figurines, representing sailors from all over the world, are also fastened to the gunwales. While the boat is still in its shed, look for the captain figurine sitting on a small altar at the bow. A real cigarette burns in his hands and is constantly refreshed by temple volunteers.
The Wang Ye boats are truly splendid pieces of folk art. When labor costs are included, each boat costs over NT$10 million (US$310,000) to build. In fact, supplies still cost a million New Taiwan dollars and before 1974 the temple could only afford to burn paper boats (though these were still exquisitely beautiful handmade objects).
On day seven, more feasts are held for the gods: this time massive spreads of 108 dishes, the traditional meal of scholars. Famous palace foods, local snacks, fruit and wine are plied on the Wang Ye, thanking them for their help in ridding the community of disease.
Around noon the boat is wheeled out of its shed and paraded through town in a ritual gathering of evil, disease and bad luck. Donggang locals prepare offerings of food outside their homes, and also hang paper cutouts designed to trick demons into possessing the paper and not real people.
The boat returns to the temple courtyard around 7 p.m. and provisions for the long journey of the five Wang Ye back to heaven are stuffed into the hold: rice and other foods, weapons, money, clothing. The demon-tricking paper effigies mentioned above are also sealed inside.
During the five or six hours it takes for the boat to be readied there is plenty to watch. Inside the smoky temple, locals use divination blocks to answer questions and ask favors of the gods. In the courtyard, watch for Taoist priests ritually forcing reluctant demons onto the boat. The priests first set up a bench and underneath place a stove with a metal wok containing boiling oil or water. Then, using a mundane list of weapons (a wok lid, broom, sword, bull horn, and shifter with the Fengshui bagua symbol on it) as well as flags to direct the demons, they ensure that no evil is left behind when the boat departs from the temple.
Around midnight, a medium asks Wen Hong if the five Wang Ye are ready to leave. When “Da Qian Shui” (the leader of the five) says they are, teams representing the seven Donggang leaders drag the boat, anchors, mast and sails down to the nearby beach at Zhenhai Park. It is a raucous procession, with music, gongs, and fireworks. The five Wang Ye (represented by tablets), as well as Wen Hong, follow, carried on flashing palanquins.
The ship is pulled to the water’s edge and the anchors, mast, sails and windsock are secured in place. Hundreds of tons of spirit money is then packed around the hull to make it appear to be riding a wave. Sandalwood incense is sprinkled on the paper to help with the later burning.
Next, the five Wang Ye are invited onto the boat in what can be a long process. “Da Qian Shui,” speaking through a medium, announces when they have finally boarded. Wen Hong’s palanquin is then carried around the ship for a final inspection.
Around 3 a.m., “Da Qian Shui” informs Wen Hong that they are ready to return to heaven. Firecrackers are used to start a fire, which soon engulfs the entire ship. By dawn, the hull is a gutted shell atop a smoky mound of spirit money embers. The spirit boat, meanwhile, has sailed away. The ceremony is now officially over, and all noise ceases. The crowds wander back to Donggang.
For the next three days (a week in former times), the people of Donggang do not go out to sea for fear of colliding with the spirit boat. They also avoid lighting firecrackers, ringing bells, playing opera or beating temple drums, as such noises could confuse the Wang Ye into thinking they were being invited back. At the end of the three days, the seven local leaders gather to see what their respective duties will be three years hence. And so the cycle continues.
—Robert Kelly is co-author of “Lonely Planet Taiwan.”
Copyright © 2009 by Robert Kelly
Write to “Taiwan Today” at ttonline@mail.gio.gov.tw