The ChuKou Temple Festival

Dragons wait to be animated at the Chuhou Temple. 

Trying to gauge what religious tradition is the norm has become my personal endeavor.  We will see.  On a whim, off on the scooter we rode out of town west toward the mountains with the idea of seeing this temple before a hike at the edge of the mountains.  Little did we know, the gods had requested to go for a ride...

One of three religious leaders/channelers, this takes on the spirit of a diety through a spinning dance and directs the prepatory workers to light bundles of "cash", I believe to make the site sacred.

 Most temples incorporate both the mundane (booths like at a fair and at this one a 7-11) and the sacred interchangeably, it is sometimes hard to know when an auspicious occasion is occurring.  It took us until the next day to be sure.  Like most of my experience of Taiwanese culture so far, the event had a purpose with a laid-back, not-sure-when it was going to start attitude.  The Lion dancers, a whole crew of smoking teenagers, couldn't give us an idea of when the festivities were going to start, nor seemed to care how long they had to wear the freakin heavy outfits in the hot weather for.  Oh well, I'm from New England, in shorts I'm sweating.

The temple is off to the right, with two lion dancers chilling by the "burning" honorary tower( a marble structure surrounded by an intricate walkway with an opening on one side to throw "money" or whatever in to supplement the local god).  Yes, he looks tough, but so did I as a teenager...

The Temple is at ChungKuo right at the edge of where the mountains literally stop the road from going anywhere but up. 

 We arrived at the ChungKuo temple thinking we would just check out the scene before ascending into the mountains for a hike.
I parked the scooter amidst the usual visitors to this site taking photos by the gorge (in the picture above you can see the beginning of a bridge that spans the gorge-not a really big one, but still a gorge).  I had wanted to come back here to check out the gorgeous temple and, like most temples, all the stands around it.  I thought all was normal, just a little bit of fireworks (everyone sets off explosives ALL the time) and people in matching outfits.  Then a whole line of swordsmen walked by, hey-ho, I asked what is going on.  Time to wake up the god is what I got to understand.  So here is the day of shaking the gates of heaven, or otherwise...

Gotta burn money, no one is gonna get anywhere without burning something.

 The ritual is actually going on in a number of places at the same time.  The temple has a big rectangle of a space in front of it, boardered by the canyon river at the end.  Things are going on inside the temple as well as in front.  This temple's guiding "priests" represent a drunk, happy, esoteric link to the god we learned later.  The multi-colors of their outfits is meant to depict a pauper priest in a sewn-together rag of an outfit, and their actions, depending on the purpose, are usually affected by some stagger or the like to show drunkenness.  This is a pretty loose interpretation considering my Chinese.  Inside the temple, one priest divines the future of the community, another leads the procession to where the auspicious exit will occur, and the third leads the auspicious exit.  Here we go...

Drums, drums, drums in the deep.  Gotta have drums if you are gonna wake anything up. Leaving the temple to the courtyard.  See the camera crew in the background; no ceremony over here seems too sacred to be filmed, photographed, painted, etc.

Lions prepare the way for the auspicious gods-as-men to leave

 This is the part I am not to sure about; the god's representatives/dudes/local officials/yet another person besides the priest who can carry the god on/in their person leave the temple, get into a car-a very expensive car-and high tale it out of there, which leads the rest of the procession to do the same in a much more round about way.  There is a wooden carriage, intricately carved, that all the symbols of the gods are placed in before all this happens. Those icons seem to be the actual "incarnation" of the spirit in action, the carriage gets carried around in a procession, all the people follow it and make sure it gets safely put onto a truck.  From there I believe it goes to visit a another god's temple, for a spin around the neighborhood, out for some Chinese, or get's stored.  I'm on it, I'll let you know the deal when I get it.

Dude in the red was quickly shuffled into a mercedes along with two others from the temple.  Great God transport, let alone for us.

Although many hang around, it is a single dancer who clears the way for the car.  Quite an amazing dancer with a dominating and intricately painted mask.

Car gone, the festivities quickly continue.

Inside the temple, this central priest makes some form of precognitions from or through wood blocks.  Pairs of men join him at the alter.  After some answer is given, the recipients go outside.  There is an announcer, who seems to be stating something that has been acquired from inside the temple, but I can't honestly say if this is the case.

Similar colors and weapons were these guys theme. 

The dance of the masks is always syncopated by symbols and drums.  This guy was really intense, the one in red.

Incense, incense, incense, oh yes and explosives.

Gotta make sure the gods, in the carriage, are transported safely.  They were very sure to get the chariot up into the truck in one fell swoop.  You will notice the person in the foreground, in the outfit.  She was "the god's keeper" all day long.

 I watched as the procession wove through the grounds, back out to where the buses were-those that brought most of the celebrants.  The central figure was this officiant in the black grab with the patchwork, that I was actually quite afraid of through most of the day.  She really put most people in their place, including the most important dudes who sped away in the expensive sedan long ago, and really seemed quite particular about how every little thing should be done.  So, I was very, very careful about when, where and how I took photographs.  After the god's carriage got loaded into a truck, she went around blessing all the other vehicles, buses, cars, etc.  I was surprised to find she was quite funny and grabbed me unexpectedly with a big laugh rambling on in Chinese and gave me a big hug. 

Here she comes, and I think I'm in trouble.

She makes sure someone takes a shot of us after a hug and some hand motion thing.

So that was our surprise.  Fantastic and still not completely explained.  I want to be sure I get as much of it as accurate as I can, but the experience, the presence, of being in their company was a mix of everyday within the ecstactic.