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Fiery devotion

By Ian Bartholomew
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Apr 18, 2008, Page 13

Taipei’s Baoan Temple

(保安宮) is probably best known as one of the finest examples of restoration undertaken on an ancient Chinese temple. The decades-long project was initiated by temple director Liao Wu-chih (廖武治) and earned UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Heritage Award in 2003.

Liao’s vision, however, is not restricted to the dead materials of the past: The Baosheng Cultural Festival (保生文化祭) is one of the many events the temple uses to engage the local community. It’s also an invaluable opportunity to witness Taiwan’s religious culture at its most authentic.

Though the festival officially opened last week and runs until June 28, this weekend sees highlights including parades and performances tomorrow starting at 10am and culminating with the Fire Lion event at 7:30pm. On Sunday, members of the Baoan Temple congregation will demonstrate their devotion in the ancient ceremony of fire-walking (過火), now only rarely practiced in Taiwan. This event is the highlight of the nativity rituals for the Baosheng Emperor, the main deity worshiped at Baoan Temple, who this year is believed to be 1,030 years old.

Fire-walking is an ancient tradition revived by the Baoan Temple as part of the celebrations for the Baosheng Emperor. PHOTO COURTESY OF BAOAN TEMPLE

Starting at 10am tomorrow, the main courtyard of the Baoan Temple will host some of the country’s most highly regarded traditional performance groups, including the Songjiang Formation from Neimen, Kaohsiung County (高雄內門宋江陣), the Flower Drum Formation from Tapu in Yunlin (雲林大部花鼓陣), and the Twelve Grannies Formation from Hsuehchia, Tainan County (學甲十 二婆姐陣). The three groups have played an important part in reviving traditional street performance styles that had been in danger of dying out. To have these groups all in one place, especially so far from home, is a rarity. It also typifies the kind of commitment to ancient art forms for which Baoan Temple has become famous. At 1pm, these groups will join a parade through the Talungtung (大龍峒) and Tataocheng (大稻埕) districts, the heart of old Taipei.

The day’s festivities culminate with the Fire Lion event, in which a fabricated lion stuffed with various types of fireworks is ignited in a spectacular display that typically lasts more than 10 minutes. As with similar events such as Yenshui’s Beehive Firecracker Festival (鹽水蜂炮) and Bombing Handan (炸邯鄲), the purpose of this pyrotechnic display is to drive away evil spirits and pestilence.

Sunday’s rituals begin at 8am when elaborate obeisances to the Baosheng Emperor, who is revered as a god of healing, are conducted. The sacred precincts are closed off to the general public at certain times during these celebrations, but technology allows for viewing of the (to some) mind-numbingly tedious succession of incantations and ritual genuflections by the curious and the faithful. At 1:30pm (approximately, as the preparations are complex), the weekend’s festivities culminate with the fire-walking ritual, when members of the temple community walk over a specially prepared 20m-long strip of white hot coals in the temple’s courtyard. The ancient rite has a visceral intensity rarely seen in sanitized modern religion, whatever one might believe about the scientific or spiritual qualities that make it possible.

Through the end of June, Baoan Temple will also host gezai opera (歌仔戲) and other musical performances. In another revival of tradition, some of these are “competitive” performances, when two or more troupes stage productions at the same time and seek to draw the attention of audience members away from their rivals. The next competitive show is on Monday between 7pm and 9:30pm and pits the Lanyang Opera Troupe (蘭陽戲劇團) against the Yihsin Opera Troupe (一心戲劇團).

These celebratory performances will be followed by more exclusively religious and community-oriented events — local history tours and seminars on traditional street theater — in the following weeks. A detailed list of upcoming activities can be found at the Baoan Temple Web site, www.baoan.org.tw. Baoan Temple is located at 61 Hemi St, Datong Dist, Taipei City (台北市大同區哈密街61號).
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