Nearly 10,000 people yesterday gathered at a beach in Kaohsiung’s Cieding District (茄萣) to watch the burning of a “King Boat” in a local religious ritual to protect the community and its fishers.
The ritual was organized by the local Wanfu Temple (萬福宮) to pray for peace and prosperity and prevent a plague or other catastrophes.
It had been 18 years since the temple, where five deities are worshiped, built its last King Boat, the temple said, adding that an effigy of the “god of plague” were on board of the ship burnt yesterday.
Photo: CNA
The temple has since 1960 organized nine King Boat burnings, each time with the approval of the deities known as the Wangyeh (王爺, or Royal Lords), obtained by tossing divination blocks, it said.
Worshipers began gathering at Wanfu Temple before dawn yesterday to prepare for the departure of the boat featuring colorful paintings of religious scenes. The temple spent NT$5 million (US$175,562) to build the almost 19m-long ship, it said.
At about 7am, the boat was moved to the Cieding seashore, about 1km from the temple, and placed on a large pile of ghost money and traditional offerings from worshipers. The King Boat was set ablaze at 10:20am.
Photo: Su Fu-nan, Taipei Times
An elderly fisher surnamed Huang (黃) recalled participating in 2002’s King Boat burning, saying that blessed by the ceremony, two local fishing vessels, on one of which he worked at the time, caught 90,000 mullets on a single day after the burning.
Peace and good catches are the main concerns of local fishers, he said, stressing the importance of the rituals.
“This is why we take these ceremonies seriously and ask the gods for their blessings,” he said.
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