Religions

Taiwan's traditional religions consist principally of Buddhism, Taoism and folk religion.

Buddhism penetrated to Taiwan before the arrival of the Dutch in 1624. In the initial period, Buddhist temples were built by the Buddhist faithful as dwellings for monks. Such temples were devoted solely to religious worship, and no active preaching was carried out. In the Ch'ing period, immigrants from Fukien and Kwangtung brought Ch'an Buddhism into Taiwan. This was when monks began active preaching and carrying out charitable works. Thus the numbers of Buddhist faithful steadily increased, and Buddhism became widespread.

Buddhist belief rests on the law of karma, in other words the belief that good deeds are rewarded and evil deeds are punished. The cycle of reincarnation is linked to this, for Buddhism holds that a being may be reincarnated in another existence as a different type of creature according to the good and evil deeds it has done in life. These concepts have been absorbed into popular belief and have given rise to the notions of the Ten Courts of Purgatory and the Eighteen Layers of Hell. Several fine Buddhist temples are to be found in Taiwan, such as the K'ai-yuan temple, Fa-hua temple and Chu-hsi temple, all in Tainan.

Taoism is an indigenous Chinese religion. It acquired a kind of pope in Chang Tsung- yen, a descendant of Chang Tao-ling of the Eastern Han dynasty (A.D. 25-220) who was officially recognized as the hereditary figurehead of Taoism during the Chih-yuan period (A.D. 1335-1337) by Emperor Shun- ti of the Yuan dynasty. The tenets of Taoism are based on the worship of heaven and carrying out its Tao, or Way. The Tao provides the basis of an outlook on life which is capable of transforming mankind. The teachings of Taoism look back to the mythical Yellow Emperor, and were summed up by the philosopher Lao-tzu. The religion was for- malized by Chang Tao-ling in the Eastern Han dynasty. He devised a Taoist canon with Lao-tzu at its head, defined the various branches of arcane learning which made up taoism, and formulated many sacrificial rites and incantations.

Taoism in Taiwan comes from the Chinese mainland. It is widespread and has penetrated the populace deeply at every level. Taoism is manifested most clearly in everyday folk life in the ceremonies of capping, marriage, mourning and ancestral sacrifice, as well as in the annual festivals. Today the majority of temples in all parts of Taiwan are coloured by Taoism to a certain extent.

Folk beliefs

The folk beliefs of Taiwan are closely cornparable with those of the Fukien and Kwangtung regions of mainland China, in both their nature and particular forms. Since the forbears of today's inhabitants of Taiwan were in the main immigrant Chinese from Fukien and Kwangtung, they have preserved in their basic folk beliefs the traditional froms of their home regions. This is reflected in the form and structure of folk beliefs and related temples in Taiwan.

Immigrants coming across to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland in the late Ming and early Ch'ing periods had to rely on simple craft and crude navigational aids to carry them over the dangerous waters of the Taiwan Strait. Thus the early immigrants carried with them temple gods and all the paraphernalia of temple worship from their home districts as escorts of safetv during the journey. After their safe arrival they installed these temple gods in simple shrines in Taiwan, and as the circumstances of the immigrant communities improved over time, these shrines gradually became the sometimes magnificent temples which characterize folk beliefs and provided the focus of temple worship in Taiwan today.

Taiwan's many temples are built in the traditional Chinese palace style of architecture, and the gods which are worshipped in them are a mixture drawn from the pantheons of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Two of the most noteworthy temples in Taiwan are described more fully below.

Ch'ao-tien-kung Peikang, Yunlin county. The origins of this temple are said to go back to K'ang-hsi 33 (1694), when a monk from meichou, Fukien province, built a simple shrine to shelter a statue of the goddess Ma- tsu which he had brought over from the mainland. The cult of Ma-tsu began in the Sung dynasty, and centres on the miraculous power a pious Buddhist young woman to save her relatives from shipwreck at sea. She is widely worshipped in the coastal areas of mainland China, especially in the southern provinces, and her cult draws many adherents from the fishing and farming corn munities. In Yung-cheng 8 (1730), the local residents built a temple with a tiled roof on the spot, and the shrine began to grow in importance. The temple building has been ex- panded and improved many times subsequently, and now attracts worshippers in greater numbers than any other in Taiwan.

Lung-shan-ssu Lukang, Changhua county. This temple is said to have been founded originally in 1666 at a different site from that occupied at present. Its design and construction are modelled on the Lung-shan-ssu at Ch'Oan-chou, Fukien. Behind its wide and spacious main entrance lies a Hall of Kuan- yin, behind which again lies a Hall of the North Pole. Round the buildings run covered walkw ays with balustrades, and the secluded monks quarters are sheltered by high eaves. It is the largest temple in Taiwan, and possesses great artistic and historical value.

Western religions in Taiwan

After the discovery of new navigational routes and the New World in the 15th and 16th centuries, the peoples of Europe proceeded to sail to all corners of the earth, in vading and occupying new lands, leading to an era of maritime power. The early development of Taiwan was closely related to the expanding powers of the strong seafaring na, tions of this time. In the early 17th century, Taiwan was reached by the expansive powers of the Dutch and the Spanish, whose ardent pursuit of trade was equaled only by their zealous efforts to transmit their religions. The Spanish were Catholics, while the Dutch were Calvinist Protestants, and thus the Western religions brought into Taiwan were divided at the start into these two main currents.

Christianity was founded by Jesus Christ, and later split into the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant sects. The Chinese translations of tto these names mean literally "The Eastern Orthodox Religion," "The Religion of the Master of Heaven" and "The Religion of Jesus," or "The Religion of Christ" respectively.

The first exposure of Taiwan to Christianity came when the Protestant religion began to be preached by the Dutch 300 years ago, during their occupation of the southern part of the island. At present two factions of the Presbyterian Church exist in Taiwan: the Scottish Presbyterian Church in the south and the Canadian in the north. Catholicism came to Taiwan through Spain and the Eastern Or thodcx religion through Japan. Of the two, Catholic religion is more prevalent, having had a longer history of proselytizing in Taiwan.