Preview: Baosheng Dadi's Birthday Celebration 2012

I'm all about the temple festivals (as you know if you read this blog with any regularity). Baosheng Dadi's birthday festival is going on, well, right now: yesterday was the parade, which I attended, and today is firewalking. This weekend there are Taiwanese opera performances at the temple both evenings - line up at around 4pm to get a good seat. 

I'm really excited about the photos I took yesterday, but haven't had time to sift through all 550 of them. Here's a sneak preview, with more to come tonight or tomorrow. With a pro camera that can do rapid fire shooting, I've got entire arcs of motion in some groups of photos that are just amazing, and I did a much better job of capturing motion this year than previous years.

Enjoy - with many more to come!

Baosheng Cultural Festival 2011: First Pics

So today was Baosheng Dadi's birthday (Baosheng Dadi is the god of medicine). Anyone who's lived in Taiwan for any length of time knows that god birthdays are generally celebrated with a lot of firecrackers and a parade in which that god - and some other ones who are along to pay respects - goes around town in a palanquin to the accompaniment of great cacaphony. Generally he's followed by dragon dancers, lion dancers, tall gods and sundry other awesome stuff that makes for great photo fodder.

Baosheng Dadi's temple, Bao'an Gong, is a UNESCO world heritage site in Dalongdong, and his birthday parade is one of the biggest - if not the biggest - in northern Taiwan. It was today (but there's firewalking tomorrow afternoon, and Shennong Dadi's birthday is coming up as well so you can still get in on the fun if you want).

Here are a few photos from our day of watching the festival go by (more to come later):

The Messenger - this comical guy walks in front of Baosheng Dadi's palanquin, giving out Ritz crackers and letting people know he's coming.

This is some sort of costume group - 11 of them look fairly similar, then there's a grandma (above) and one that looks like a young girl. I think the ones who look alike are meant to be sisters.

A martial artist in a troupe prepares for a match.

One of the "sisters".

A bajiajiang (array of eight generals) mid-performance

Dragon dancing was big this year.

I like how he looks like he's comin' to get me.

I try to show up early for these parades if I know they're happening so I can get good close-ups of the tall gods and other folks.

Like these women, who are in some sort of Yunlin-based dance-and-cymbal troupe.

The martial arts troupe was really spectacular. They were so fast that I didn't get a lot of non-blurry pictures.

Another close-up god.

A Good Week for Gods

The coming week is a big week for festivals in Taipei, all celebrating the birthdays of various gods.

For Baosheng Dadi (a medicine god, rumored to have been a real person), Bao'an temple usually holds several days of festivities. As far as I know now, the firewalking (devotees allow themselves to become 'possessed' by various gods and walk across hot coals) will take place at Bao'an temple (MRT Yuanshan) this Thursday, April 9th. It usually happens around 2-3pm. Anyone interested in a truly Taiwanese experience ought to make it out there.

On the same day at about 2pm, there will be a god procession for Baosheng Dadi near Longshan Temple. It will start just off Bangka Blvd (from MRT Longshan Temple, head down Xiyuan Road and turn left on Bangka Blvd. Walk down past the 350 block and hang a left at the 7-11) at about 2pm.

On Tuesday (the 7th) there will be another big celebration in southern Wanhua. It will start at about 11:30 am at a temple off the southern end of Wanda Road (south of where it merges with Baoxing Road, not far from the river) and go all around Wanhua. We came across an old Matsu temple in our ramblings around that area today and they told us it was a particularly nice god parade. The Matsu temple was repairing its Thousand Mile Eyes da sen ("big doll" - tall god costume) at the time of our visit.

The Inaugural Post - Firewalking and More

I'm starting this blog for the sake of collecting information on Taiwan, with a focus on cultural activities or other events and activities of interest to a visitor, student or expat here.

The thing is that most of this information is available only in Chinese, or in English, but sporadically; often, it's out there, but you have to hunt it down in person, which can be time-consuming or even impossible for a shorter term traveler or someone on a busy work schedule.

With that, I bring you information gleaned from Bao'An Temple regarding their annual cultural festival. It's based on the lunar calendar so I've looked up dates in my 2009 daybook as needed.

Activity 2009 / Date / Lunar Calendar Date / Time

Temple Parade - Baosheng Dadi
Thurs. April 9
Lunar 3/14
1pm +/-


Firewalking
Friday April 10
Lunar 3/15
1:30-3:30 +/-


Temple Parade - Sengung Dadi
Wed. May 20th
Lunar 4/26
12:30-1:30 +/-



All of these events begin at Bao'An Temple near Yuanshan MRT in Taipei City. It's on the map in the station there, and noted on most city maps, including those in the major guidebooks.

The information comes from a 2008 brochure, with the lunar calendar dates projected forward into 2009 - fortunately my daybook cites the lunar calendar date for each day under the main calendar. If there are any changes or other interesting activities during that time, I'll update when I become aware of them.

What to expect at one of these events? The "parades" are really "God's Border Inspection Tours" - the idols from the temple are taken out on palanquins and paraded around town. They are usually accompanied by a long parade including martial artists in traditional face make-up, large "puppet" costumes (they're not really puppets - they're immortals and other spiritual beings) that tower ten feet or higher, lion dancers, ceramic animal floats blowing steam, music and all sorts of other fun stuff.

The firewalking is probably the most fascinating of the activities. The same palanquins are brought out along with slightly different "lion" heads while young men run around a spread of blazing hot coals. Then some people come forth with baskets of salt and pour it on the coals, creating billows of smoke. The men carrying the idols are said to become "possessed" by the gods and walk across the coals as such. Apparently, they are not injured.

At least one student of mine has said that the bearers are, in fact, injured - usually with 2nd degree burns on their feet (big surprise). "Are they really possessed?" I asked.

Apparently not. Some say they are, others just go with the flow, but aren't 'possessed' in any way.