What is "Pilgrimage by walk"

Firstly, I am going to explain about "Pilgrimage" and "Procession" which is related to Pilgrimage deeply in Taiwan. Both are religious events which represent the traditional culture of Taiwan.

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Pilgrimage and Procession　

Pilgrimage is "Jin xiang", religious procession is "Rao jing" in Taiwanese.
When you listen to the word of pilgrimage, you might remember various events all over the world. For example, "Jerusalem pilgrimage" of Christianity, "Haji" of Islam, "Buddh Gaya" of Buddhism...... 
"Jin xiang" is pilgrimage in Taoism.
Talking about Pilgrimage of Taoism, the holiest place of Taoism is the Meizhou island in China. Many people visit this place by airplane and ship every year.
Besides, "Religious procession" is also an important event in Taoism of Taiwan. It's maybe an unfamiliar word for you. According to a dictionary, it means "a line of people or vehicles that move along slowly, especially as part of a ceremony". Firstly, let's check what Taoist Procession in Taiwan is. 

What is Procession in Taiwan?

When you travel in Taiwan, you might have seen a procession which consists of a portable shrine, decorated cars and people who wear traditional clothes or hold flags and so on. It's a Taoist event called "Rao jing". It is similar to a parade in a festival. 

For a celebration of a birthday of God, portable shrines and groups of dance and music called "Jin tou", parade an area around a Taoist temple. God patrols the territory, residents pray to God to bless them.
There are a variety of features by region. It's also one of the entertainments for people in Taiwan. If partner temples also come to join an event, the scale of the event is getting bigger and bigger. Besides, after coming back from a pilgrimage, we can often see a procession around a Taoist temple.

In events of processions, the most famous one is the Beigan Mazu procession, which is organized by Beigan chaotian temple. But, it just has few "Jintou", and is clearly different from other procession events.

"Liufangma guolu" held in Yunlin province, is also famous. It doesn't have a particular temple, they build a new temporary shrine, then move a new one every year. When they move, a portable shrine parade in a new area. 
 

In a procession, we can enjoy sexy dancers who show a sexy dance in front of God in order to entertain. It's one of the highlights. 

Taoist procession is made up by believers of a host temple and partner temples, and part-time walkers. So, it's rare to recruit participants who walk together to the public. However, as the above information, they rarely recruit participants to the public. You can get the information at a temple or on Facebook. 

Even if you don't apply for joining an event, it's no problem for you to follow a procession without disturbing. I have walked so many processions so far. 
But, if you would like to walk together for a long time, I recommend you to ask the staff in a temple whether you can have a hat of the temple or not. As long as you wear a hat, you can fit in with a file of a procession. If they have enough, you can get it for free. In that case, you may put 100 TWD in an offering box.

If you have a chance, Please try to jump into a line.

What is Pilgrimage in Taiwan?

 

Taoist Pilgrimage is like going back to God's hometown. 
Many Taoist temples in Taiwan enshrine a separate deity from old Taoist temples. 
Famous Taoist temples such as Beigan chaotian temple and Nankunshen daitianfu, have thousands of divided temples. So when the birthday of God comes, we can see so many groups of pilgrimages every year, and it is called "The period of pilgrimage". 
Imagine, thousands of divided Gods like a child come back to the hometown all together, though they are dispersed before and after the birthday, and it will lead to a kind of chaos.

"Sonboling Shoutian temple" located on the top of a mountain in Nantou province becomes a bustling area with a continuous group of pilgrimages before and after the birthday of God whose name is "Xuantian dadi". Especially, "Jitong" called shaman in English is very famous. He is possessed by God, and proves it by hurting himself by edged tools. Therefore, there are many bloody shamans there, and if you have any problem with your heart, you had better not go there. 

More than 99% of Taoist pilgrimages are practiced by riding buses. It is natural as participants of a pilgrimage include old people, and events move for a long distance. Furthermore, some of the events stopover at tourist sites on its way to the destinations, and it means pilgrimage events might have an implication of a recreation trip for believers.

However, there are some Taoist temples which are fired up and carry on pilgrimage by walking, and they walk a few hundred kilometers!

It is called "Tubu Jinxiang" in Taiwanese, or "Pilgrimage by walk" in English.

It is a religious event which has more than 200 years of history. The number of Taoist temples which carry out Pilgrimage by walk gets more and more in these 20 years. 
Pilgrimage by walk has been practiced mainly in Mazu worship, and we are also able to see them in the worship of Xuantian shangdi, Wangye, Baosheng dadi worship and so on.

The main objective of Pilgrimage is to replenish the power of God through the back to the pioneer of temples periodically. And they also ask pioneer temples to dispatch "Soldiers sent by God" and bring back a box of incense.
Besides, they report the present situation to a pioneer temple, or interact with temples and believers. If the destination of pilgrimage is not a pioneer temple, the objective of it might be a regular interaction. 

Believers in the group of pilgrimage walk with a strong faith in order to have divine protection from God. Moreover, there are some who would like to thank God to walk through a long distance because they realized their hope. 

Matters to be attended to

Small-scale and middle-scale pilgrimage by walk events are mainly held in various places in spring. Almost all events seek participants from the public, and even foreigners like us can join it. But if you haven't got used to it yet, I can't recommend you to join small and middle scale events. 

If you can't speak Chinese or Taiwanese well, or you haven't got used to it yet, you should join large-scale events such as Dajia Mazu and Baishatun Mazu. Then, if you would like to be hooked on it more, you may try middle or small scale ones. At that time, you can ask Taiwanese friends to take you to join it.

Although we call it Pilgrimage by walk, most participants ride a support car on its way in order to control physical condition and keep walking. There are also participants who aim to walk the whole distance, but if most people ride a car, participants who inevitably keep walking easily fall behind others. When you are behind in a file, please do not give up and keep walking with a precaution for fatigue and accidents.

Besides, some people are not happy about Taoism pilgrimage events, because they cause traffic jams, air pollution, and their participants litter, make noise and so on, though I don't want to write negative things, but you should keep them in your mind. We have to mind our manners and consider residents living along the route of events.

Two major events

What kind of famous events are there in "Pilgrimage by walk"? I am going to introduce you to major events.  

There are two major Pilgrimage by walk events which are

[Daji Mazu Pilgrimage]
[Baishatun Pilgrimage]

We can say both are two leaders in Pilgrimage by walk. They have no equal in this field. Currently, many events of Pilgrimage by walk are held in Taiwan, but just two have many participants from outside.

Last

In this blog, I will introduce you to "How to join events of Pilgrimage by walk" in detail with two major events. 

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徒 歩 進 香［巡 礼］