More than 2,000 people in Yilan County’s Luodong Township (羅東) took part in a walk around the township organized by the township office, with many taking statues of Tudigong (土地公, the God of Land) with them.
While it is not unusual to see people parading statues of immortals on religious holidays or township offices organizing trips for residents, it is unusual to see a combination of the two.
However, in Luodong on Saturday, people joined a walking tour around the township, with many carrying statues of Tudigong taken from their homes or workplaces.
Photo: Chu Tse-wei, Taipei Times
“Tudigong is the guardian of the people and has a close relationship with the people, which can be seen everywhere,” Luodong Township Mayor Lin Tzu-miao (林姿妙) said. “We are holding the event because Tudigong’s birthday on the second day of the second lunar month [which falls on Thursday] is approaching.”
Some people carried Tudigong statues with red bags hanging over their chests, while others used small wooden sedans.
“I threw the divine blocks to ask if Tudigong would like to go for a stroll and he agreed immediately,” a woman, surnamed Chiu (邱), said.
The “divine blocks” refers to a pair of crescent-shaped wooden objects — often colored red — that people use to ask for opinions from immortals. After throwing the blocks onto the ground, if one block settles with the flat side up and the other with the rounded side up it indicates that the immortal has answered: “yes” to the question asked.
Participants came from beyond Luodong for the event, with many coming from Suao Township (蘇澳).
“As soon as we saw information about the event, we thought about bringing our Tudigong statues,” a participant from Suao said. “I asked Tudigong: ‘Uncle, would you like to go out for a walk?’ and I was surprised that he agreed immediately.”
The terms “Uncle” or “Uncle Tudigong” are both terms that people use to address the god, showing an intimacy between the God of Land and his believers.
Statues of Tudigong are often displayed at temples, while, in addition to ancestral tablets, such statues are often seen on private altars.
Worshiping Tudigong is common in companies or factories, as people believe that Tudigong might help bring success and prosperity.
The township office also arranged for a dancing lion, drummers and life-sized statue of Nezha (哪吒, also known as the Third Prince) to join the 5km walk.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS