Mention temples and the first images that come to mind for many people are associated with the annual festivals that fill the streets with worshippers and spectators to watch giant swaying effigies of the gods parade through the streets to the accompaniment of booming drums and exploding strings of firecrackers. Stilt walkers tower over the crowds, lion dancers weave through the streets to dispense good luck to local businesses, teams of temple patrons wearing traditional Chinese costumes and face paint carry large, intricately carved chariots for the gods. The senses are assaulted by vivid colors, deafening noise, and the smell of firecrackers mixed with the aroma of snack foods.
But these exciting affairs are but the highlights of an active religious year. Taiwan's Buddhist, Taoist, and folk-god temples number in the tens of thousands, ranging in size from the small Earth God shrines alongside rice fields to the large, multistoried temples in urban areas that attract thousands of worshippers each day from around the island. Whatever their size, temples are an integral part of daily life. The countless one-room temples found everywhere from scenic mountain trails to busy urban shopping districts are always open to supplicants. And the larger temples that require full-time administrative and maintenance staff are generally open every day from 5:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night. These are rarely empty. People stop by throughout the day to pray, offer incense, or consult the gods on personal or family problems.
In a Chinese temple, communication with the gods is usually a private affair, for there are no formal services except during festivals and special holidays. Some people simply pause for a moment at a temple entrance to press their palms together and bow in reverence toward the gods lined up on the altar. Others enter, buy incense, and slowly move from alcove to alcove to commune with the panoply of gods or boddhisattvas represented on the various altars.
Neighborhood gathering spot---Taipei's Hsing Tien temple, like many others around the island, plays an active role in promoting cultural activities for the whole community.
Yet temples are much more than a place for worship or religious solace. They serve as neighborhood community centers, places to share neighborhood news and political gossip with friends, read and lounge in the shade, sit and people-watch, or even to take an undisturbed nap. Kids play on the flagstones, grandmothers trade recipes, businesspeople meet to settle disputes, retired veterans play chess on low tables, students sprawl on benches to read comics or frown over textbooks.
Most temples are built and maintained with donations from neighborhood residents. They are managed by an administrative committee or a board of directors made up of members elected from the community. These representatives secure the services of the religious and maintenance staff, arrange special events and festivals, and solicit funds for special projects such as clothing the gods and major redecoration and repairs.
But while temples have traditionally served as community social centers, in recent years, some of the larger temples have expanded their services to include promotion of grassroots cultural development. Community outreach programs have traditionally focused on charity programs and counseling services, but a growing number of temples now offer such programs as classes in traditional music, calligraphy, and painting, or have begun hosting large-scale arts events.
Wu Kou of Tai Tien temple is pleased with a newly developed Taiwanese Literature Camp designed to strengthen local cultural roots.
This shift illustrates the changing interests and demands of temple-goers. When most people had to work hard in the fields to make a living, they asked little from the gods besides timely rainfall and freedom from pestilence. But today's industrialization and modernization have increased people's wealth and changed their lifestyles. They not only spend more money on offerings to the gods and contribute larger donations to the temple, but also spend more leisure time at temple- associated activities. In addition, the growing social and political liberalization of the past fifteen years has also fueled growing interest in grassroots cultural development.
One of the most culturally active Buddhist temples on the island is Tai Tien temple. It was first established in 1662 on a small island just off the coast of Nan-kunshen, a small coastal town north of Tainan city in southern Taiwan. The temple was built after residents of Fujian province, following a Buddhist ritual designed to help spread the religion, sent a small boat to sea carrying the statues of five scholars who had been deified during the Tang dynasty (618-907) for sacrificing themselves to save others from a plague. The boat ended up in Taiwan, where local Buddhists enshrined the statues. The temple was moved to its present location in 1817. Besides the statues of the five scholars, called the wang-yeh (王爺), the temple houses three statues of Kuanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, and one of the Emperor of the Underworld, who determines the fate of human beings in their next life.
Yeh Chia-hsiung of the Tainan County Cultural Center---”While people are busy renovating old temples, we remind them of the value of old artifacts.”
Given its origins and lengthy history, it is not surprising that artists and scholars have long found the Tai Tien temple especially attractive. A look at the current administrative committee illustrates this. Chairman Huang Chiu-chung (黃秋鐘) is a sculptor, general administrator Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇顯) is an art collector, maintenance chief Li Kuo-tien (李國殿) is a calligrapher and photographer, and public relations director Wu Kou (吳鈎) is a poet. The involvement of artists has also led to Tai Tien's long history of providing cultural programs. For several decades, it has sponsored local poetry clubs.
While such activities may seem a bit mundane these days, it required considerable courage and persistence to stage such intellectual gatherings before martial law was lifted in 1987. “We were often visited [by government representatives],” says Chen Chung-hsien. “Why? They were suspicious about our discussions. Because of the hostile atmosphere between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communists, meetings among intellectuals were not encouraged for fear that ideological topics would be discussed.” For seventeen years the temple has also sponsored a summer camp at which well-known writers share their creative experience with people interested in literature.
Li Kuo-tien of Tai Tien temple supports working with regional cultural centers---”Cooperation combines the expertise from cultural centers with the financial support and manpower from temples.”
In recent years, the temple has taken advantage of the more open social and political atmosphere to go further in promoting local culture. The temple's staff is particularly proud of its two-year-old Taiwanese Literature Camp, held during the winter recess for public schools. One event during the camp has pointed out the need for paying more attention to local cultural roots. “Our discussions of Taiwanese poems were punctuated with laughter because even Taiwanese had trouble reading them,” says PR director Wu Kou. “At least it's a start,” says Chen Chung-hsien. “But it's a pity when people who live here can't speak Taiwanese. It really isn't right to use only Mandarin in the classroom because the Taiwanese language is necessary to really understand the culture and customs of Taiwan.”
Tien Hou temple in Luerhmen, a fishing village of only 181 households located north of Tainan, is also embracing a broader social and cultural mission. This is one of the island's best-known Matsu temples. Matsu, the Goddess of the Sea, is one of the most popular deities in Taiwan, especially among fishermen. Many local people consider Luerhmen to be the place where Chinese culture first took root on the island. The Ming dynasty loyalist Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功, 1624-62), also known as Koxinga, is believed to have established a Matsu temple at Luerhmen to express his appreciation for the goddess' help in holding the tide and making it possible for him to land on Taiwan's coast in 1661.
Juliana Liu of Hsing Tien temple says some cooperative ventures have been hindered by the differing goals and schedules of temples and the government.
In 1993, the temple commemorated the landing with a massive event. Worshippers arranged a 30-ship sail-by along the coast to imitate Koxinga's fleet, and spent more than NT$1 million (US$37,000) to build a wood-and-bamboo Ming dynasty warship one-tenth actual size. The event drew thousands of tourists from around the island, and its organizers hope that similar cultural events and religious activities will bring prosperity back to Luerhmen, which has suffered with the decline of its fishing industry.
Since 1993, the temple has focused its attention on its new annual literary camp, which offers three to four months of classes and seminars open to the local public. Despite the name, the camp encompasses a range of topics and interests including environmental protection and folk arts.
Construction of the lavish Kanglang Villa by the Tai Tien temple has boosted attendance at religious festivals and other temple activities.
Considerable planning and work is involved, and some Tien Hou temple staff members are making significant personal sacrifices in order to arrange the programs. When Tsai Teng-chin (蔡登進) left his position as a primary school administrator to become the temple's director of activities, for example, his new monthly salary dipped to NT$20,000 (US$740), a significant pay cut. “My wife often asks how we are going to raise our four children now,” he says. “But I tell her that no one else will take care of our hometown if we don't care for it ourselves, and no one else will help us if we don't start doing something ourselves.”
Such dedication is attracting more volunteers to the temple's cultural and educational programs. Increasing numbers of local people attend, as do teachers and students from nearby colleges. “We are working hard in this cultural desert,” Tsai says with a smile, “and we're very glad to see the beginnings of a little greenness here.”
But the new programs have faced some opposition. “We met objections at first because the committee did not want to be accused of throwing money away,” says Chen Hsi-cheng (陳熙城), the temple foundation's secretary-general. The objections were overcome in part through the generosity of chairman Lin Hsien-yang (林仙養), who even mortgaged his family home to help support temple activities.
It looks good from a distance---Temple construction and redecoration these days often skimps on the highly complex decorative work in stone, wood, tile, and cloth found in traditional structures.
The events now cost millions of NT dollars each year. This is a tremendous commitment for such a small community. Fortunately, the islandwide publicity has brought a 30 percent growth in worshippers and a 50 to 70 percent increase in overall attendance during the cultural season, providing people with a popular alternative to television, KTV, and fast-food restaurants.
One development that is fueling the movement to increase grassroots cultural activities at temples is a new cooperation with the twenty government-run regional cultural centers around the island. Initially, many local cultural centers became involved in temple fairs to help address several new problems that temples were facing. During the 1980s, some temples experienced a certain vulgarization of their traditional events. Some private groups organizing events in the public squares fronting temples began replacing the traditional Taiwanese operas and puppet shows with strip shows and karaoke singers in order to attract larger crowds. Another problem was a growing wastefulness in privately organized temple feasts.
To address these problems, many temples sought to organize their own large-scale public shows and feasts in order to maintain standards and traditions. Some called upon the expertise of the cultural centers in managing such events.
Chen Hsi-cheng of Tien Hou temple says some cultural programs have caused concern among temple staff---”We met objections at first because the committee did not want to be accused of throwing money away.”
Another problem addressed by the centers was a trend toward lower-quality craftsmanship at newer temples. In the past, it took decades to build a temple because of the complex wood, stone, tile, and cloth work. But today, many temples are built in a year or so by using poured cement instead of wood, skimping on detail work, and replacing traditional decorative motifs with gaudy imitations. Some local cultural centers began urging temple administrators not to sacrifice standards for speed. “Taiwan has become the symbol of wealth,” says Yeh Chia-hsiung (葉佳雄), director of the Tainan County Cultural Center. “While people are busy renovating and enlarging old temples, we want to remind them of the value of artifacts. In this fast-paced era, the time-consuming folk arts of the past are especially valuable and shouldn't be cast aside. Otherwise, our offspring will laugh at our poor taste when they look at what we have created and left.”
Today, the centers have also begun cooperating on specific temple projects and events. One of the first endeavors was a joint project in 1992 between Tai Tien temple and the Tainan County Cultural Center to open Kanglang Villa, a 72-room hotel built for visitors and worshippers. The new influx of visitors prompted the temple to begin holding art exhibitions and cultural performances in addition to the religious services. Tai Tien's Chen Chung-hsien has been pleased with the venture. “It's the first time the government has expressed such a positive view of temples,” he says.
Tsai Teng-chin of the Tien Hou temple---”No one else will take care of our hometown if we don't care for it ourselves.”
A number of other temples have teamed with the centers in organizing cultural events. For example, during the 1994 National Festival of Culture and Arts, an islandwide arts event overseen by the central government's Council for Cultural Affairs (formerly the Council for Cultural Planning and Development) included a temple series. The Tai Tien temple worked with the Tainan County Cultural Center to host a series of sixteen carnival skits performed by two folk dance troupes, a photography exhibition on the art form, and an exhibition of carnival skit props, costumes, and accessories. Several temples in the oldest district of the central island town of Taichung worked with the Taichung City Cultural Center to organize tours of historical temples, folk opera performances, an exhibition of decorative lanterns, and a poetry recital.
Although such cooperative ventures are now developing more rapidly, a few long-standing biases have yet to be eliminated. Some officials still view temples primarily as venues for low-brow cultural events and only use them to help distribute official announcements and promote public health and educational campaigns.
In contrast, temple administrators consider themselves to be the traditional centers of community life and the primary preservers of culture.
And problems have arisen in the process of trying to match the goals and schedules of two separate administrative groups. “Officials are always asking us to change our timetables for the convenience of their visiting superiors,” says Juliana Liu (劉瑞娥), executive director of the Hsing Tien temple in Taipei. She also complains that civil servants put too much emphasis on statistics and official evaluations of events and not enough on the work itself. Of course, personalities always make a difference in joint efforts. Chen Chung-hsien attributes the smooth cooperation between Tai Tien temple and Tainan County Cultural Center to the positive attitude of Yeh Chia-hsiung, the center's director. “Attitudes do matter,” Chen says. “If people in power equate temples to superstition, then cooperation is doomed.” He explains that culture is not just a leisure pastime for wealthy people or a research topic for scholars. Moreover, he dismisses the old official belief that temple activities are too secular and low class.
But over the past two years, temple administrators and local culture center directors seem to be realizing that cooperation can create a win-win situation. “Cooperation combines the expertise from cultural centers with the financial support and manpower from temples,” says Li Kuo-tien of Tien Tai temple. “We help the cultural center hold large-scale activities, and they help us in planning and promotion. Many other temples are starting to do the same thing.”
Culture center director Yeh Chia-hsiung agrees that both sides benefit from pooling human and financial resources. “We offer services and they provide money,” he says. “It is a complementary exchange that can put social resources into full play.” In another instance, Tai Tien temple, the Tainan County Cultural Center, and the Council for Cultural Affairs held a symposium on temples and folk culture during the 1994 National Festival of Culture and Arts to discuss the relationship between religion and culture with a number of invited foreign experts. Such events are helping build more expertise and stronger grassroots relationships between civil servants and the people they serve.
Tai Tien temple activities illustrate another new spin on cultural outreach. “We encourage people to hold exhibitions here without rigid evaluations of their so-called artistic level,” says Li Kuo-tien. “We simply treasure the spirit of participation and like to help those who have no idea about the arts to develop an interest.” Recently, a local villager exhibited more than forty paintings. “All his neighbors came to see his work,” Li says. “We achieved our goal---his dedication was respected and we stimulated some public interest.”
In some ways, temples have an easier time winning public support for their cultural activities than do the cultural centers. Temple activities are often viewed as extras, whereas taxpayers expect the culture centers to produce a steady stream of activities. “We probably get more compliments because we have more volunteers and can get help from artists more easily,” says Li Kuo-tien of Tai Tien temple. “Meanwhile, people are always complaining that the government cultural centers aren't doing their jobs, no matter how hard they try to meet public demands.”
Another boost is that temple administrations seem to be attracting more young and energetic personnel and volunteers. Together, they are helping to rejuvenate the traditional function of temples by providing religious and secular activities that add rich and varied cultural dimensions to daily life. The attitude expressed by Chen Chung-hsien of the Tai Tien temple seems to be spreading: “Chinese culture is manifested through temples,” he says. “Our responsibility is not only to preserve it but also promote it.”