Mirrors

After leaving you, in a sudden
I find out
there are many mirrors left in my brain,

Every movement of you are
refleted as those beautiful silhouettes with perfect angles

Floating above me



Inspired by the opening of Flamenco, Carlos Saura

KING BOAT FESTIVAL

Last weekend, I was in Little Liuqiu, an offshore island of Taiwan, as foreign tour guide, haplessly, there are no foreigners we could show around. However, I was really impressed by the flourishing and colorful religious ceremony. I started to realize that the religious ritual is one of the main features of Taiwan.

The ceremony is called, “King Boat Festival,” and is held every three year. It is a traditional event with 300 years’ history, originated from the ancestors whom came to develop Taiwan at Quing dynasty. When they first arrived our land, Formosa, they missed their hometown, mainland China, so much and unfortunately there were many diseases or plagues in the same time. Undoubtedly, many people died. As a result, they eagerly searched a spiritual pillar. In the end, they invited the god called Wen Wanye coming through the sea to protect them. Gradually, this activity become the King Boat Festival today and has never stopped.


the center of the event, Sanlong Temple, Little Liuqiu

During the festival, the emperor of the heaven will send one representative to lead the gods on the ground to expel the bad things and the god of plague. The gods will capture the bad spirits and put them into the pillar in front of the temple every day. In the last day, the King Boat, the boat for the god coming from heaven which is built half year before the event, will be carried and be shown around the island for putting all the bad things into it. Last but not least, the climax is burning it in the midnight which symbolizes the representative starts his journey to the sky with all the bad luck and bad spirits.

The event is holding for one week with complicated process. One of the most interesting parts is Welcoming Ritual or Welcoming Water which means inviting the representative from the water. Actually, there are 36 of them to be chosen and each of them has their own last name. The ritual is in the night. In this time, everyone will be waiting at the beach and some temples will try to guest who he is for this year. In addition, the god from heaven should be different each three years. It usually takes a long time to guest right. In certain degree, the temples are afraid to guess wrong because it means the temple is not powerful enough. It is really interesting to see all the people crowding at the beach waiting for the result to come out!

On the next day, they will start the parade. In Little Liuqiu it takes four days because there are four Jiao, the unit of district, and each one has its leader called Jiaotou. During the parade, each temple will carry their sacred sedan following the representative, Wanye and Guanyin. They will visit all the temples according to the district of the day.


When the carriers visit one temple, they will first have a small dance with the parasol, the implement used to block evils for their diety.


Then, they will rush a little bit toward the temple when hearing the man with the golden pot says, "come on, please!"


There are 68 sacred sedans on the road this year and each of them is different in style. Furthermore, each temple’s carriers’ “uniforms” are totally different from another, in other words, they all have their own uniforms. In addition, those sedans are quite “modern”, some of them play electronic music while some play foreign music! You can now imagine how colorful and how exciting it could be on the streets of the island.



Colorful steet in the day!


The King Boat Festival is not only held in Little Liuqiu but another places as well. However, the ceremony in this island has its features. The Wanye here acts also like a judge in the court. If residents have any serious difficulties, they can come to ask for help. For instance, this year one family came to ask where their disappearing fisherman family was. Before asking questions, the people need to register at the temple of the Groundskeeper God. Then, they should wait until the day Wanye come. There are the temples of Groundskeeper God in each district. Besides, due to the fact that Little Liuqiu is a tiny island, only about 6.8 square kilometers but huge enough for the island which is only composed by coral, the parade can be really organized. You can always see a long line of sacred sedans which means more people are gathering together and more bustling.


The evidence of bustling world!


It turns differently in the night with magical LED lights!


The tent of Taiwanese Opera where the actors play the drama for entertaining god, normally they play for the "real" audience. It is also a main feature of Taiwanese culture as well.

It is my first time to join the big religious ceremony like this. It was absolutely fun to see the imagination of our ancestors through myths. You will feel the vivid scenes when you try to imagine all ghosts are being sucked into the King Boat and transferred to the heaven by flame. The little stories told by residents are another appealing part, for example, there are some places you should not go when the night become too dark!

The noisy, crowding and colorful religious ceremony is definitely is a truly TAIWANESE STYLE. Whether you are in or not in Taiwan, it is the part you should not miss!