The foundation of belief
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has initiated a policy of reducing the use of incense at temples in order to reduce air pollution.
The reaction to the policy by local governments has been one of horror, as people have confused the idea of promoting the reduction of incense burning with banning it altogether, and some even think it means banning the burning of incense and ghost money, and the use of firecrackers.
This collective fear that incense burning will be banned is the reason that temple associations are organizing a demonstration on Ketagalan Boulevard today to protest against the policy.
From the perspective of folk belief, the burning of ghost money, incense, firecrackers and candles stands in direct correlation to the deity’s power as experienced by believers. The smells, the heat and the smoke produced enhance the feeling of believers that they are involved in an important ritual that promotes an exchange between their own spirituality and that of a more powerful spirit.
For ritual masters of a certain clerical status, the performance of a ritual requires the use of ghost money, incense, firecrackers and candles as ritual props.
When using these props, their symbolic meaning reappears within the ritual realm, where it interacts with other crucial components of the ritual, such as religious texts, incantations and prayers. At the same time, it draws forth the divinity of the ritual within the culture and fills the sacred realm and the believers’ spirit and mind with it.
Today, ghost money, incense, firecrackers and candles are used as props in almost all rituals and these props can therefore be seen as the foundation of these rituals. If that foundation were removed, it would be a destructive blow to folk belief, both emotionally and practically.
It would indeed be devastating for believers and clergy would be unable to perform their rituals.
This is why it is of such paramount importance to faith in general when the understanding of this environmental policy — which has been in place for several years — changes, regardless of the reason and the policy begins to be understood as a way of obliterating religion because of the policy’s target.
A study commissioned by the EPA shows that the main cause of air pollution is not only the way these props are being used, it is also the low quality of cheap ghost money and incense imported from China and Southeast Asian countries.
The best way to go about improving the situation is to implement strict quality controls of ghost money, incense, firecrackers and candles by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection.
Chang Yu-chuo
Taoyuan
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