A first (very) full day in Taipei, a city overflowing with religious energies.In the morning, an American friend took me on a hike up a mountain behind the Academia Sinica.
Australia is many things, but mountainous it is not, and it was almost exciting to be going up, up, up through semitropical foliage as giant black-blue butterflies fluttered by... The sky was greyish-white, but that was probably for the best, as it was already plenty humid. Only the colors of my photos suffered some... The steep steps of the path took us past several little Taoist temples.In the afternoon, two Taiwanese scholars took me through temples in Taipei: one Taoist (Pao -An), one Confucian, one Buddhist (Longshan) - if only it were that simple! The level of ornamentation varies - from the sobriety of the Confucian temple to an inspired excess in the Taoist -
but all had the bowed, almost sagging roofline you see in the Pao-An (Taoist) temple above. There were definitely differences in atmosphere, but more overlap in objects of veneration than you'd expect if you thought religious traditions are jealously exclusivist instead of, say, entrepreneurially inclusivist. The celestial goddess Matsu, central to Taiwanese Taoist devotion, was also venerated in the back of the Long Shan Buddhist temple; Buddhists believe that Matsu was a follower of the Buddha. This was less surprising to me than the large crowd of lay worshippers singing a sutra to Kuanyin (Avalokitesvara). I'm familiar only with Japanese Buddhism, where the laity keep clear of temples until a funeral forces them to go. Buddhism here is alive and kicking!And then, after a dinner of the most tender and delicious
dumplings I've ever had, we walked around a central neighborhood where a big Catholic church, the Chinese Muslim mosque, and a characteristically sci-fi Mormon temple were pointed out to me. Perhaps I'd have have been shown very different things were I not a religious studies person, but I suspect any visitor would be struck by the religious vigor here - at latest when looking for snacks at the nearest convenience store...! (I'm not quite sure if the potato twists made the lonely god into a happy angel or what...) The variety and fervor of religious devotions here give some idea of what the communists rooted out (or tried to) on the mainland. Might it return one day?
