The Republic of China Yearbook 2008

CHAPTER 21 Religion

Taiwan’s Spiritual Landscape

Religious Pluralism

Taiwan’s religious landscape is richly variegated. According to the Ministry of the Interior, as of December 2007, 902 religious organizations were represented in the country, including 170 foundations belonging to some 26 registered religions and religious groups. Religions that have registered with the government (see table below) and met relevant regulations are granted tax-exempt status.

Mainstream religious beliefs in Taiwan—represented by Taoism, various Buddhist sects, and other denominations that originated in mainland China—are largely polytheistic and syncretic. For example, the Bodhisattva Guan Yin, while originally a Buddhist deity, is also worshipped by Taoists. Likewise, many Buddhists will, on occasion, worship Taoist deities. Followers of I-Kuan Tao, moreover, revere Guan Yin as well as Jesus Christ and Mohammed.

A sizeable number of people adhere to monotheistic religions, particularly Christianity, although Islam also has a following. Animism is still practiced among Taiwan’s indigenous Austronesian peoples (see Chapter 2, “People and Language,” and Chapter 18, “Culture”), while ancestor worship is practiced by many regardless of professed faith.

Various other religious groups play an important role in the lives of many ROC citizens and foreign residents. For example, the internationally known organization Falun Dafa (literally, “Dharma Wheel Great Law,” popularly known as Falun Gong, or “Dharma Wheel Discipline”), which is registered in Taiwan as a civic association, claims thousands of local practitioners.

Historical Overview

Until four centuries ago, Taiwan was inhabited mainly by Austronesian peoples, whose religious beliefs were primarily a combination of animism and ancestor worship. Today, their traditions maintain only a tenuous hold as a consequence of wave upon wave of immigration and invasion from abroad.

Non-indigenous religions were first introduced to Taiwan in the early 17th century with the arrival of European colonizers and Han immigrants from the southeastern provinces of mainland China. Christianity was brought to the island by Protestant missionaries accompanying the Dutch East India Company, which set up trading operations in southwestern Taiwan beginning in 1624. The company employed Han laborers from mainland China to work on sugarcane and rice plantations, and these newcomers brought with them Taoism, Buddhism, and a variety of other religious traditions.

Catholic missionaries made their first appearance in 1626 on the northern coast of Taiwan, arriving with Spanish adventurers who established settlements in the vicinity of today’s Danshui Township and Keelung City, before being driven off the island by their Dutch rivals in 1642.

Additional religious traditions and variations on existing ones were introduced to Taiwan over the next three and a half centuries, with the arrival of further alien rulers.

Over the past two decades, the blossoming of a free and democratic society has unleashed people’s spiritual and intellectual energies, prompting growing numbers of Taiwanese to study religious philosophy and practice spiritual disciplines, such as meditation, and to put their ideals to work in the hope of creating a more compassionate society, both at home and in the wider world.

Major Religious Groups

Buddhism

In the mid-17th century, immigrants from the Chinese coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangdong brought Buddhism to the shores of Taiwan, and toward the end of the century, Buddhist monks started arriving from Fujian. Temple construction began in Tainan and progressed northward after the Ching dynasty took control of western Taiwan in 1683.

During the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945), Japanese Buddhist sects methodically disseminated their teachings in Taiwan. Their example inspired Taiwanese Buddhist organizations to engage more actively in the publication and distribution of religious tracts, establishment of schools, and provision of social services.

Buddhism in Taiwan was further vitalized by the arrival of Zen masters who were among the refugees from the Chinese Civil War. During the period of martial law (1949-1987), Buddhist temples were pressured to join the Buddhist Association of the ROC, which was the authorized national organization of Buddhism in Taiwan.

Tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism is an esoteric sect that places emphasis on the practice of meditation and other spiritual disciplines under the direction of a spiritual master. The earliest Tantric Buddhist masters to arrive in Taiwan were Zhangjia Khutughtu (khutughtu signifies a reincarnated bodhisattva; for more on bodhisattvas, see “Guan Yin” in the “Deities” section) and Kanjurwa Khutughtu of Mongolia, who had fled the Chinese Civil War in the late 1940s. In 1959, two Tantric Buddhist masters from Tibet, Gelek Rinpoche and Mingyur Rinpoche (the Tibetan term rinpoche refers to a highly revered teacher believed to be a reincarnated monastery abbot), came to Taiwan, where they have been teaching ever since.

Tantric Buddhist practices have become increasingly popular since the 1980s, with the arrival of lamas who fled the repression of Beijing’s authoritarian rule in Tibet and set up teaching centers in Taiwan. In 1998, the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama was established in Taipei, serving as a de facto representative office of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Since the advent of democracy, the number of Buddhist organizations has multiplied rapidly, with activities becoming increasingly wide-ranging. Especially influential figures in Taiwan’s Buddhist community and internationally are the following masters, all of whom place emphasis on engagement in service to humanity as well as on personal spiritual discipline:

• Master Cheng Yen (1937- ) founded the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation in Hualien in 1966. Her foundation concentrates on humanitarian, educational, cultural, and medical activities. Popularly known as Tzu Chi, the organization has been internationally lauded for its ability to mobilize volunteers and funds to distribute relief supplies and provide treatment to victims of natural disasters worldwide. Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Tzu Chi University, Tzu Chi Stem Cells Center, and Da Ai (Great Love) Television are among the institutions operated by Tzu Chi in Taiwan.
• Master Hsing Yun (1927- ) established the Fo Guang Shan (Buddha’s Light Mountain) Monastery and the Fo Guang Shan International Buddhist Order in Kaohsiung in 1967. Since then, the order has established educational institutions across the country as well as more than 200 temples. In addition to founding and operating Fo Guang University in Yilan County and Nanhua University in Chiayi County, the order has set up the online FGS Tienyen Buddhist eCollege as well as community colleges island-wide that offer continuing education in a wide variety of fields.
• Master Sheng Yen (1930- ) became an acolyte at a Buddhist temple in mainland China at an early age and came to Taiwan in the closing days of the Chinese Civil War. In l989, he founded the Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) Cultural and Educational Foundation. DDM has since established many Buddhist association chapters in Taiwan and the United States. Master Sheng Yen is a founding member, and was the first chair, of the World Council of Religious Leaders.
• Master Wei Chueh (1928- ) was born in mainland China’s Sichuan Province. He became known to the public after he began to teach Chan (Zen) Buddhism to a small group of people at his retreat hut in Wanli Township, Taipei County. As his teaching drew more attention and followers, Master Wei Chueh built his first missionary base, the Ling Quan (Spiritual Spring) Chan Monastery near his retreat. Later, he built a larger temple, the Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Nantou County, to accommodate ever-increasing numbers of followers, and to serve as the mission’s headquarters. Soon after its completion, the grand monastery, one of the largest in Taiwan, was awarded the Taiwan Architecture Award in 2002 and the 20th International Award for Lighting Design in 2003. Centers dedicated to Wei Chueh’s teachings can be found in the United States, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Thailand.
• Master Hsin Tao (1948- ) founded the Ling Jiou Mountain Buddhist Society, which has branches in countries across Asia. He is most famous for establishing the Museum of World Religions in Yonghe, Taipei County, in 2001. Born in Myanmar, Master Hsin Tao was orphaned at the age of four. At 13, he was taken by troops to Taiwan. Hsin Tao became a monk at the age of 25, and after a decade of harsh asceticism and solitude, he began to teach. He participated in the UN Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders in 2000.

Taoism

“Taoism” can refer both to religious Taoism (daojiao) and philosophical Taoism (daojia).

Philosophical Taoism is a vision of the cosmos and humanity’s place in it, based primarily on the Tao Te Ching (teachings of Lao Tzu who lived during the sixth century B.C. and was a contemporary of Confucius) and the writings of Chuang Tzu (who lived in the fourth century B.C.).

The Tao (Dao), literally meaning “way” or “path,” is generally seen as a vital, primordial force that flows through the entire universe. Taoist thought emphasizes wu wei, meaning “non-doing” or action that does not involve struggle; spontaneity; individual freedom; mystical experience; and living in harmony with nature and the Tao.

Religious Taoism, on the other hand, is a polytheistic tradition with a corpus of scriptures and lively and colorful rituals that began taking shape in China around the first century. It combines elements of Lao Tzu’s philosophy with ideas from other schools of thought that emphasized the attainment of immortality. Lao Tzu and other sages are honored as deities. Since its introduction in Taiwan in the 17th century, religious Taoism has assimilated many folk deities and traditions.

In contemporary times, Taoism was invigorated by the arrival of Taoist priests from China in the wake of World War II. Among them was the 63rd-generation leader—Zhang En-pu—of Tianshi Jiao (or Zheng Yi Jiao), which has become one of the most popular Taoist sects in Taiwan. The founder, Zhang Dao-ling, is worshiped as the Heavenly Teacher.

With the establishment by Zhang En-pu of a Taoist fellowship in 1950 and the founding of the Taoism Society of the ROC in 1966, Taoism became a more organized religion in Taiwan. As with Buddhism, over the past several decades, some Taoist groups have become increasingly involved in social service and dedicated to disseminating a more sophisticated understanding of Taoism’s philosophical underpinnings and of various disciplines aimed at promoting health and enlightenment.

I-Kuan Tao

I-Kuan Tao, which might be translated as the “all-encompassing way,” evolved from Xian Tian Tao, which was founded by Huang De-hui in 17th-century China. First brought to Taiwan by adherents after World War II, I-Kuan Tao quickly attracted a substantial following.

I-Kuan Tao teaches that one Tao underlies every religion. Its followers revere a number of deities subsumed by the Tao, the highest of which is Ming Ming Shang Di (God of Clarity), and several deified historical personages including Lao Tzu, Confucius, Sakyamuni Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Mohammed. Adherents keep alive various rituals of Confucianism, and commonly hold small group services at family shrines. Personal sublimation and a life of service are key tenets in the moral philosophy of I-Kuan Tao.

During the martial law period, I-Kuan Tao gained in popularity due to its efforts to teach ordinary people about the principles underlying popular religious practices. Fearful of the power it might eventually wield, however, the government banned I-Kuan Tao. It was thus forced to develop underground, and the homes of followers became gathering places for teaching and worship. It was only after the abolition of martial law in 1987 that it was allowed to operate openly as a religion.

Like Buddhism, I-Kuan Tao advocates a vegetarian diet, and many vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan are run by its followers. The religion’s missionary work has spread around the globe. I-Kuan Tao’s world headquarters was established in 1996 in El Monte, California.

Christianity

Catholic and Protestant missionary work began in earnest in the mid-19th century during the waning years of Ching rule. Today, a high proportion of the main island’s indigenous people are Catholics because of the Catholic missionaries’ strong focus on their communities.

In 1967, the Chinese Regional Bishops’ Conference, the highest managing body of Catholic affairs in Taiwan, was established in Taipei. The conference is currently presided over by Archbishop Joseph Cheng.

Among Protestant denominations, the Presbyterian Church has attained prominence thanks in part to the work of missionaries such as Canadian physician-cum-pastor George L. MacKay. Rev. MacKay arrived in Taiwan in 1871 and devoted the rest of his life to improving the lives of the island’s inhabitants. In 1879, he set up Taiwan’s first hospital of Western medicine in Danshui, where he also founded the Oxford College for the cultivation of Taiwanese missionaries.

In 1884, Rev. MacKay established Taiwan’s first modern all-girls’ school, the Danshui Girl’s School. The Presbyterian Church then established Taiwan’s first Western-style middle school in Tainan, present-day Chang Jung Senior High School, in 1885.

During the early years of the Japanese occupation, the colonial government adopted a laissez-faire policy toward Christianity, which also allowed Japanese Protestant denominations to establish churches in Taiwan. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), more control over religious groups was exercised, and the colonial government put Western Catholic missionaries under strict surveillance, forbidding them from carrying out missionary work in local communities.

Christianity developed in new directions after World War II, with an influx of Christian clergy and believers, both Protestant and Catholic, from mainland China. By providing various social services (with aid from Christian churches abroad), such as distributing relief supplies, Christianity spread rapidly during the 1950s and 1960s, with the number of Catholic believers growing over ten-fold and Christian denominations increasing from three to around 40. Besides Christian denominations originating in the West, Protestant churches in Taiwan include “independent churches,” sometimes called “local churches,” either founded in mainland China before 1949 by Chinese Christians (such as the True Jesus Church) or established in Taiwan after 1949 (such as the Bread of Life Christian Church).

Islam

Islam first came to Taiwan about 300 years ago with migrants from Quanzhou in mainland China’s Fujian Province. Over the years, some descendants of these early Muslim settlers converted to other religions, while others maintained contact with Muslim communities in mainland China until the beginning of Japanese colonial rule. The colonial government’s strict control over religious activities resulted in the severing of ties between Muslims across the Taiwan Strait and was a factor in the shrinking of the island’s Muslim population.

The second wave of Muslim immigration took place after World War II. First were those who came to Taiwan for business, followed by those who relocated with the Kuomintang government after it lost the Chinese Civil War to the Chinese Communists. During the 1960s and 1970s, the government brought to Taiwan a group of Chinese soldiers, many of them Muslim, who had continued fighting Chinese Communist forces after 1949 from bases in Myanmar.

In recent years, the Muslim community has expanded with the arrival of thousands of Indonesian guest workers and foreign students studying in Taiwan.

Muslims have formed several organizations to help resolve issues resulting from the needs of religious practice. Primary among them is the Chinese Muslim Association (CMA), which has also played a helpful role in the nation’s diplomacy with Muslim countries. The CMA is located at the Taipei Grand Mosque (TGM), which was built in 1960 and has been officially designated as a religious heritage site. Besides the TGM, Taiwan’s Muslim community is also served by the Taipei Cultural Mosque as well as by mosques in Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung.

Deities

The vast pantheon of gods and goddesses of polytheistic sects in the Chinese tradition parallels the political structure and government bureaucracy of imperial China. Commonly worshiped deities include the following:

Guan Yin

Guan Yin is worshiped as the Bodhisattva of Compassion. In Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva is an enlightened being that refrains from entering nirvana and ending the painful cycle of rebirth, choosing instead to continue reincarnating in order to help others on the path to enlightenment. Indeed, Guan Yin’s full name (Guan Shi Yin) means “one who hears the cries of the world,” and this deity is often portrayed as having multiple eyes and a thousand arms with which to reach out to all humanity. Buddhist deities such as Guan Yin are often perceived of as a spiritual consciousness that can be manifest in human beings, animals, and objects, rather than as a single soul bound to one body.

Guan Yin is conceived of as female in the larger Chinese cultural sphere, including Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Scholars of Buddhism, however, generally agree that Guan Yin is the equivalent of Avalokitesvara (Sanskrit, “lord who looks in all directions”), a bodhisattva revered in the Indian Buddhist tradition before Buddhism was introduced to China in the first century, who is depicted as male, yet capable of assuming different forms.

Ma Zu

Ma Zu (Mother Ancestor) is the deified spirit of Lin Mo-niang, a woman reputed to have lived on Meizhou Island off the coast of Fujian Province sometime during the Sung dynasty (960-1279). Legend has it that she employed supernatural powers during her lifetime to cure the ill and save people from imminent danger, especially sailors and fishermen at sea, for which reason she is known as the Sea Goddess.

The enormous popularity of Ma Zu in Taiwan is evidenced by the more than 400 temples dedicated to her, and by the processions in communities all over the country in which her icon is carried on a sedan chair to spread her blessings. Tens of thousands of worshipers join in the week-long Dajia Ma Zu Pilgrimage, which snakes through several counties in central and southern Taiwan, and many Taiwanese make pilgrimages across the Taiwan Strait to visit Meizhou Island.

Yu Huang

The supreme ruler of heaven in Chinese tradition is popularly called Yu Huang—the Jade Emperor. Yu Huang can grant titles to the spirits of outstanding individuals and elevate them to the status of deity. Under his direction, a legion of deities manages the affairs of the universe. His image and that of the gods and goddesses under his direction can be found in many Taoist temples.

Tudi Gong

Ubiquitous in Taiwan—along pathways in the countryside and down side streets in big cities— are relatively small temples and shrines (some standing less than half a meter high) that house icons depicting a smiling, bearded old man, typically seated and holding a walking staff. This is the deity popularly known as Tudi Gong, literally, “Land Elder,” and more formally as Fu De Zheng Shen, meaning “Righteous God of Good Fortune and Virtue.”

A single deity in essence, Tudi Gong has myriad spirit avatars whose mission is to look after local tracts of land and the people residing on them. Though occupying a low rung in the divine bureaucracy, this local guardian spirit is one of the most popular divinities, and his image occupies an honored place on many a family altar.

Cheng Huang

Another god said to have multiple avatars is Cheng Huang, the “City God,” who is mandated by the Jade Emperor to guard particular cities against attack by enemies and protect the inhabitants from evil. Legend has it that he was once a river ghost who, unlike his peers, had compassion for those in danger of drowning and refrained from pulling them under. It was for this demonstration of kindness that he was deified.

Zhu Sheng Niang-niang

When souls are ready for reincarnation, it is up to Zhu Sheng Niang-niang (Birth Registry Matron) to decide who their parents will be and register the event. She is commonly depicted as a woman holding an open book in one hand and a calligraphy brush in the other. Couples pray to her in the hope that they will have gifted and healthy children.

Guan Gong

Guan Yu, a legendary general in the Three Kingdoms period (221-280), is popularly known and worshiped by more than one sect as Guan Gong (Elder Guan). According to legend, he fought alongside two other heroic men to defend the Eastern Han dynasty (25-221) against rebel forces. When captured by the enemy, he refused to defect and was beheaded.

Guan Gong is thus honored as a paragon of loyalty, righteousness, and courage, and is regarded as the patron deity of soldiers and policemen. His image is easily recognized by his red face and long black beard.

Wang Ye

In Taiwan, the name Wang Ye is a generic term denoting some 360 “lords of pestilence,” whose lives before becoming gods are recounted in hundreds of divergent tales. The lords are generally described as having been people of great merit who, upon dying, were charged by Yu Huang with the task of protecting mankind from evil spirits and epidemics.

Rituals for worship of this celestial legion of protectors differ with locale and time of year. One of the best-known rites for driving away pestilence, usually held in the spring and autumn, is called Burning Wang Ye’s Boat. As an offering to the lords of pestilence, a life-size wood-and-paper boat is burned along with a sea of spirit money on which it rests and a cargo of more spirit money that it carries.

Popular Practices

Rather than attending regular religious services at a set location, most people in Taiwan visit a temple whenever they feel the need to seek divine assistance. They may choose a temple that honors a favorite deity, or stop by a shrine that simply happens to be close to home or on the way to work. Rituals common to Taoist and Buddhist temples include the following:

• Casting divination blocks is a ritual for seeking deities’ answers to yes-or-no questions. Kneeling in front of an altar, the supplicant drops a pair of crescent-shaped wooden blocks on the temple floor. One side of each block is rounded, the other flat. An affirmative answer is indicated when the blocks land with one rounded and one flat side facing upward. A negative answer is indicated when both rounded or both flat sides land face up. Commonly, an answer can only be considered definite when the divination blocks are cast with the same answer three times in a row.


Incense sticks are a vital part of temple worship. The production process of the sticks includes repeatedly laying them out to dry under the sun.

• Drawing divination sticks is another way of obtaining divine guidance. Bundles of generally 60 or 100 numbered sticks are placed in a cylindrical container and shaken. The stick that jumps out first or protrudes the most is selected. The supplicant then consults an oracular verse and commentary printed on a slip of paper with the same number as the stick. Some people cast divination blocks to confirm that the correct stick was selected.
• Burning spirit money is a rite commonly performed when praying to or for the spirits of ancestors or others on special occasions, including funerals, festival days, and days recommended in lunar calendar almanacs. The square-shaped paper money, usually with slips of thin gold- or silver-colored foil glued to the center, is folded in half before being burned. It is believed that when the money is received by the intended spirits, it will enhance the comfort of their afterlives and consequently secure their help as guardian angels or, at least, enable them to rest in peace so that they will not haunt the living.
• Burning incense and making food offerings to deities or ancestral spirits is another way of seeking their assistance. Devotees usually light three incense sticks and place offerings of fresh fruit and other foods on an altar. As a token of respect, the flames of just-lit incense sticks are extinguished not by blowing but by the swish of a hand.

Religion in Academia

Several private institutions of higher learning affiliated with Christian or Buddhist organizations offer religious studies programs. These include Aletheia University, Tunghai University, Chung Yuan Christian University, and Chang Jung Christian University, all of which are Protestant-affiliated; Fu Jen Catholic University; and Fo Guang University, Huafan University, Hsuan Chuang University, Nanhua University, Tzu Chi College of Technology, and Tzu Chi University, which are Buddhist-affiliated.

In 1999, the Taiwan Association for Religious Studies was established by a group of scholars whose research focused on religious activities in Taiwan. In the following year, National Chengchi University established its Graduate Institute of Religious Studies.

The Private Schools Act was amended in 2004 to allow seminaries and monasteries whose educational programs meet Ministry of Education (MOE) standards for college accreditation to grant MOE-recognized college degrees. This has enhanced their ability to attract students who wish to devote their lives to spiritual-based community service and social renewal.