Traditional culture

Religion

My ancestors came from Quanzhou, Fujian, China in early or mid 19 century, our religious beliefs are deeply influenced by ancient southern China. Traditionally, Taoism and Buddhism are the central beliefs of my hometown, especially Taoism, but some religious researchers classify it as a folk belief.  There are three deities in our family , Guanyin Buddha - 觀音佛祖, Mazu - 媽祖, and King Of Tree - 樹王公. (see Fig. 1) Guanyin Buddha and Mazu might have been brought from Quanzhou, China by my ancestors. 

The "King of Tree God - 樹王公" is a protective deity which my youngest uncle established in the early 1960's, and three deities are enshrined in our Chang Family private temple, named "Three Saint Palace - 三聖宮". But it's not a palace; it's just a traditional house. The original house spot was my old ancestral house where I was born, and the old house was moved to a farmland in the same village in 1960 by my first uncle ( note );  and this house was rebuilt few years later by my fifth uncle ( youngest uncle ).

Note: In the early years in my hometown, especially in the mountain area, there are bamboos  everywhere; most houses were built of bamboo, frames, walls, roof supporters, even beds, etc.; the bamboo house can easily be moved to other spots such as farmland as a shed or cabin.  

By 1937, the China-Japan war occurred, Japanese afraid Taiwanese tend to China; the Japanese governor had a movement named "皇民化運動" had began，some called " Japanize " Taiwanese wearing, speaking, naming, and religions are strictly forced to become Japanese-like. I had heard many girls named Japanize in my childhood, such as 春子( ha lu ko -はるこ )， 彩鳳子( sai ho ko - さぃほこ). And traditional religious deity statues were forced to gather in a location (Fig.2). 

After the end of WWⅡ, Taiwan returned to R.O.C. in 1945, but the joy of victory soon turned into civil war in China; by 1949, the P.R.C established in Beijing: and the R.O.C, Kuomintang retreated to Taipei Taiwan. Then the curfew began; it was more than ten years of intense confrontation across the strait, the traditional religious activities were forbidden or needed to apply for allowed. After entering the 1960's, the situation was alleviated gradually. Before that, the traditional folk belief activities were still in a sneaky state.

There were originally two deities, Mazu and Guanyin, in Chang's family, which were brought from Mainland China in the mid 19 century by my ancestors, two deities were put in the custody during  WWⅡ.  In the early 1960's, my fifth uncle ( youngest uncle ) was possessed by the deity named " King of Tree Deity  - 樹王公". for many years. I was in the elementary school then, and had seen so many times how my uncle was possessed. I am not superstitious, but I had seen that in my childhood is truth. 

By 1965, after more than 20 years of being put in the custody (see picture below),  the original two deities statues were lost their luster, and my uncle was frequently possessed by King of Three Deity. Then, elders made a decision to remold two origin deity statues and carved a new deity statue for King of Tree God," and finally enshrined them in my uncle's house hall called "Three Saint Palace - 三聖宮，" all of them consecrated - 開光( kai guan ) in lunar March 12th, 1965.

There were many times pilgrimages to 超峰寺(Fig.3) Kaohsiung after Three Saint Palace established in 1965, because my fifth uncle went into the temple for practice when he was possessed by King of Tree Deity. The last time pilgrimage was on lunar March 12th, 2018, I participated and filmed the whole activity below.         

There are two videos below were traditional religious activities which I took and edited in two years, 1st one is the "Three Saint Palace" Guanyin Buddha went on a Pilgrimage to a famous temple (超峰寺) in Kaohsiung county 2018. The 2nd one is our village main temple (三界壇) Mazu went on a pilgrimage to a famous temple (大天后宮) in Tainan City 2019. Traditionally, temples in Taiwan were not only one deity, like our Chang family has three, some were over five and more, one of them is main deity, and the others are accompany deities. When a temple's deity finished a pilgrimage and back home, some temples around the village would go to welcome them home, the bigger temple, the jointed temples were more and it's lively and bustled. Deities relationship just like human being relationship, is it a little funny?