The total number of temples for Buddhism, Taoism, and the Chinese folk religion increased approximately 113 percent from 1956 to 1980. The number of temples per 10,000 residents had remained almost unchanged up to the end of 1960s, and had even declined somewhat for five-year period, before finally increasing significantly after 1973.
The trend for Christian churches is quite different. Before 1965, there was a clear tendency of very rapid growth both in terms of absolute number and density. But from 1965 to 1980, church growth remained very limited.
These two major tendencies of the numbers of temples ad churches illustrate a meaningful theme of change in Taiwan's religions.
The majority of the Taiwanese population are believers in the Chinese folk religions, a diffused religion that has its theology, rituals, and personnel intimately diffused into other secular social institutions. As a pioneer society during the last two centuries, the very tough and challenging living environment in Taiwan facilitated the quite strong need for religion. Almost all the Chinese immigrants on the island during that period believed in folk religion and brought many god images and even the religious organization and rituals of the Chinese folk religion to Taiwan.
In addition, due to the unique situation of an immigrant society, the people did not simply bring the tradition of the Chinese folk religion to this new society, they tended to adjust and survive by changing this tradition functionally. Sometimes, they even invented new gods and rituals to meet their own need for security and survival.
Folk religion remains the most popular religion in Taiwan. According to the recent islandwide social survey, 65 percent of the adult population in Taiwan can still be identified as believers in the Chinese folk religion. Furthermore, both the total number of temples and the density of temples per 10,000 residents have increased significantly in the past four decades.
In sum, despite the progress of modern science and technology, industrialization and modernization, this diffused religion continues to play a constant major role in the lives of Taiwan's people. Some scholars even speculate that the folk religion might contribute to Taiwan's economic growth. While the majority of people maintain their beliefs in the folk religion, there have been changes in terms of form and substance.
Originally, people worshipped different gods because they came from different areas of the southern provinces of mainland China, and because they engaged in different occupations. For example, the immigrants from Changchow in Fukien Province worship Kai Chang Sheng Wang, a god particular to the region. And carpenters worship Lu Pan, a famous carpenter in ancient China.
These traditions have lasted for a long time; nevertheless, tremendous changes have occurred since the 1950s. Fewer and fewer people worship gods that have so much specificity. As a result, the number of temples which are relevant to these traditions have decreased both in terms of absolute amount and relative percentage.
Contrasting with this trend, the gods with universality are now worshipped more and more. For instance, Buddha and Kuanyin (the Goddess of Mercy), two famous gods from the Buddhist tradition, and Kuan Kung and Matsu, two important gods for Taoism and folk religion, have become the most popular gods in recent years.
The implications of the contrasting trends are important. First of all, the disorganization of certain religious communities due to the vast geographical migration and rapid social mobility has contributed to the decline of worshipping gods based on specificity of original locality. Second, technological development has had a significant impact on traditional occupations. The traditional functions of various gods, therefore, are weakened or even extinguished. Third, a national society with a centralized political system has been formed, and the increasing popularity of gods with universality might reflect the tendency of the secular social institutions.
A comparison of Professor Wolfgang Grichting's 1970's survey with my own 1984 study shows several changing trends in the attributes of folk religion believers. First, the percentage of true believers increased from 13.4 to 17.6. Second, the percentage of supporting believers decreased rapidly from 44.3 to 32.8. Third, there is an obvious increasing tendency for the marginal believers from 38.3 percent to 48.7 percent.
These statistics indicate possible substantive change within folk religion in terms of believers' faith. The direction of the changing trends seems to be relevant to the process of secularization of the Taiwanese society. Some supporting believers lost their confidence in folk religion because of their secular interests and modern educational attainments. Thus, the increase of marginal believers is due mainly to these more secularized supporting believers.
However, rapid social change can lead to an increase of psychological tension for sensitive persons, some of whom pursue traditional religions as a means to cope with their rapidly changing milieu. Therefore, the slight increase of true believers is also the result of secularization.
Buddhism was introduced into Taiwan in late 16th Century by Chinese believers. Although it has had tremendous influences on Chinese folk religion, Buddhism itself was not the main religion followed by the majority of the Taiwanese before the end of Japanese rule. Since 1950, however, Chinese Mahayana Buddhism has been reinstitutionalized in Taiwan's society by many Chinese monks from mainland China and various Taiwanese followers.
First of all, Chinese Buddhist Association was formed to guide the development and reinstitutionalization of Chinese Buddhism in Taiwan. The Association, though not a cohesive one, has significantly influenced the development of Buddhism on the island.
Among other activities, the Association has institutionalized the formal ritual for ordination. Every year since 1953, novices have received the important Buddhist commandments through a nearly one-month long ordination ritual in which a monk receives 250 full commands and a nun receives 348 full commands. The formal ordination ritual is a vital institution of Chinese Buddhism, and the continuation of this annual national ordination legitimizes the status of Chinese Buddhism and monks in Taiwan.
In Chinese history, intellectuals tended to be affiliated with Buddhism. Many scholars were involved in its academic development, and some of them even became famous monks. In the past two decades, almost every college in Taiwan has established a formal Buddhist study society on campus. Because of the availability of this opportunity, many students—especially females—have been converted to Buddhism.
In the 1980s, this tendency has become even clearer and stronger. More and more young intellectuals believe in Buddhism. And since higher education has expanded very rapidly, there are increasing numbers of college students, which increases the potential for even greater expansion. Thus, many modern Chinese intellectuals, like their forebears, tend to be attracted by Chinese Buddhism.
Nevertheless, through emphasizing "Buddhism for this world," some Buddhist leaders also attract many people outside the realm of academe who have contributed significantly to the growth of Buddhism in Taiwan by providing financial and spiritual support to monks and Buddhist organizations. According to the 1984 social survey mentioned above, about 15 percent of the adult population has been converted. Currently, about one million individuals in Taiwan can be categorized as pure Buddhists. Obviously, Buddhism is the most popular institutionalized religion in Taiwan.
Before 1945, there were only three Protestant denominations in Taiwan with about sixty thousand converts, but when mainland China was taken over by the Communists, more than sixty denominations moved to the island. From 1950 to 1964, the number of Protestant church members grew from 70,000 to 278,000. Obviously, Taiwan's Protestant churches experienced a very rapid and unique growth. But after the mid-1960s, the Protestant churches entered a phase of slow, and even declining growth. From 1965 to 1979, the number of converted members grew to only 360,000.
The Catholic church had a similar development. The number of the faithful increased rapidly in the 1953-1963 period, going from 27,000 to 300,000. Since then, the Catholic church of Taiwan has faced a stagnant period of development. In fact, the number of Catholics has now declined to 290,000.
The earlier phase of Christianity's growth in Taiwan can be attributed to the political and social instability and the economic backwardness experienced by Taiwan's residents in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Though the percentage of new immigrants from mainland China who were Christian was small, a high number of these were priests or clergmen. The trauma of being uprooted and of having experienced the war against the Chinese Communists predisposed many of these immigrants to religious consolation. Because of the sudden presence of a considerable number of Christian priests and clergymen, and because of the active manner in which these leaders went about the business of saving souls and establishing churches, a large number of immigrants became Christian at this time.
Also the effective evangelic movement among Taiwan's aboriginal people helped the Christian churches to gain very significant growth after the return of Taiwan to Chinese sovereignty. Prior to this, the Japanese colonialists forbade the preaching of Christianity to the aborigines. Since the 1960s, Christianity has become the dominant religion in aboriginal societies.
After two decades of rapid growth, Christianity in Taiwan is no longer flowering. The secularization of society is a trend likely to continue for some time, and the current disposition of Taiwan's Christian institutions makes that trend unfavorable for their growth. While mainstream Protestant churches and the Catholic church have been experiencing negative results from society's secularization, independent churches have tended to be influenced very little. By emphasizing fundamentalist theology, flexible administration, and self-supporting financial power, they are surviving and growing more consistently than the mainstream churches.
In contemporary societies, rapid economic growth—accompanied with modern education and mass communication-is likely to produce social forces that generally lower the attraction of religious pursuits. The zeal of church goers is usually cooled by the degree of attraction to the pursuit of material rather than spiritual goals. Though such forces are understood by Christian leaders, most admit that the process of secularization is a difficult one to defend against.
As the Rev. Allen Swanson notes: "With the pressure of contemporary life now with us in Taiwan, it is indeed hard for pastors to mobilize laymen to develop crucial lay training programs. Even among those willing to help, the swift and demanding pace of life here often makes it impractical."
The high mobility of the local population is also having a negative effect on Taiwan's Christian churches. As urbanization and industrialization lure rural people to the cities, church members, especially those with rather weak faith, are separated from their clergy, and then from their church. Among those mobile members, many of them leave the church altogether. For example, from 1969 to 1976, Taiwan's Catholic church lost at least 33,000 members through geographical mobility.
Finally, due to rapid social changes, old values are being abandoned or transformed, and old beliefs attacked as superstition. David Jordan and Daniel Overmyer suggest that in such a situation, it is understandable that those of a more pious frame of mind would seek to reaffirm their religious and moral tradition through forming new groups to foster it. Thus syncretistic sectarianism has become very popular. By means of spiritual writing, many sectarian groups pro mote a kind of new religion which is more institutionalized rather than diffused. Thousands of people have been attracted by these new religious movements.
Among a dozen such religions, I Kuan Tao (the Unity Sect), a religion just recognized as legal by the government in 1987, is the most popular. It has at least 300,000 adherents. And Tien Ti Chiao (Religion of the Heavenly God), a newly founded religion only during the past two years, now has 10,000 converts. A third one worthy of mention is Ju Tsung Shen Chiao (Confucian Spirit Religion). Hundreds of luan-tang, or phoenix halls for spirit writing, attract crowds of people to attend the ritual of spirit writing and to learn the teachings from the gods. These religious movements might have converted more members than other religions in recent years. As a revitalization movement by promoting Confucianism on the basis of the Chinese folk religion, syncretistic sectarianism is a powerful new religious force in Taiwan. —(Dr. Hei-yuan Chiu is a research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei).