The temple run project in Taichung

VISIT TAIWAN

THE TEMPLE RUN PROJECT IN TAICHUNG

It’s such a pleasure to visit Taiwan. I am lucky to have the chance to experience Taiwanese culture and meet a lot of good people. Taiwan is a wonderful country with lots of variety in nature, lifestyle and food. The latter seems to be one of the most important things in the Taiwanese culture apart from religion, which was sometimes a real challenge to me with respect to the amount of food they eat. But anyway, the food was always good and I am very impressed with how many different kinds of food they eat, how exotic rice can look, and how amazingly full of taste their fruits are.

My GCDP (Global Comunity Developement Program) from AIESEC Tunghai University took me to Yuan Bao Temple in Taichung, Taiwan, where I participated in “The Temple Run” project. Temples are one of the most historical and cultural centres in Taiwan. The project is based in Yuan Bao Temple, and consisted of me and another five interns. They’re coming from different parts of the world; Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Canada, and they all add a lot to the diversity of the team. In this project we are making a video about the temple or about all the special temple activities, telling the story of this holy place to let more and more people realize this culture and respect it.

Regarding Yuan Bao Temple history, Baosheng Emperor is the master god in Yuan Bao temple. Baosheng Emperor came from China. Yuan Bao temple is an extremely historic temple in Taiwan. There is a variety of traditional activities here. For example, every year they light fireworks to celebrate the God of birth. “Pilgrimage Procession” will be held two times a year. There are many believers in this sacred place.

Today the temple has some ceremonies about thanking God. The ceremony, which is held at Yuan Bao Temple is one of the most interesting religious ceremonies I’ve ever seen. I was very impressed by what I saw. At the the ceremony people put their palms together and bowed (some knelt) in front of the table to show respect and ask for blessings.

Since there was a lot of people that came to the ceremony, they cooked a lot of delicious vegetarian dishes and everyone ate it for free. I found this interesting because all of the foods they made were vegetarian foods. They do that because it such a compassionate choice for animals and also a plant-based vegetarian diet is healthier and can prevent disease.

I’m so glad I joined The Temple Run project in Yuan Bao Temple, because through this project I have the opportunity to learn about Taiwanese culture and have some cross cultural understanding, which was one of the points I had already talked about under the cultural experience portion. Just to build on that, this GCDP experience has widened my perspectives about the world and that we are just one small person in a big world full of diverse people and cultures. We shouldn’t be imposing our culture and perspectives on another societies but rather, learn to be tolerant about those differences and celebrate the diversity.

 

Today, I came to Yuan Bao temple to see what activities they perform here. The Yuan Bao Temple itself is relatively small. Just outside the temple, an old tree stands beside the main gate. The gate itself has an intricate design on the top, inside the small courtyard is a wrought iron ghost shaped like a money furnace. The entrance to the temple itself has more traditional multicolored wood carvings.

Behind the temple itself is a multi-storied building that belongs to the temple and is called the Dadao Public Temple. However, there is no aesthetic architectural or artistic quality to the building.

In Yuan Bao temple there’s a ceremony we can call a religious ritual. Many people come here to celebrate and thank their god, during their religious ritual they like to sing, pray and make Tangyuan food but just some people sing in this temple.

  The traditional food they eat when they celebrate, it name is Tangyuan. Tangyuan is a Chinese food made from glutinous rice flour mixed with a small amount of water to form balls, and then it is cooked and served in boiling water. Tangyuan can be either small or large, and filled or unfilled. They are traditionally eaten during Yuanxiao or the Lantern Festival, but also served as a dessert on Chinese wedding day, Winter Solstice Festival, and any occasions such as family re-union, to find a reason to reunite. But, it seems only women make this food because I never saw a man make this.

   I think all the participants at Yuan Bao temple are very enthusiastic for this ceremony or religious ritual. Although it’s winter they can spend their time to celebrate, such as singing and praying. Because of that, they make me feel enthusiastic and curious about that too. So, I always record what they did by camera and I always take a photo too just for documenting the event. And they took a long time to celebrate this and thanks to their gods. I think and they have around 60 gods. And this morning, I helped someone to bring their stuff from somewhere (because I don’t know the name of the place) to their office and I helped to throw the garbage out in the trash too. And it made me feel good to help someone. In this temple I work as a team because I have a team of other students from other countries on exchange with me (from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Canada). So, our role in this project is to work as a team, and make a blog, record videos, and take pictures.

New to Taiwan, new culture

Two weeks ago I arrived in Taiwan after a long, 30 hours of travel. Having never been to Asia, or even away in another country for more than several weeks, I had spent the previous weeks preparing to experience a large culture shock. Right away I noticed some small differences, but over a couple weeks I am beginning to realize some larger cultural differences. After my two months in Taiwan I would like to reflect on this piece and see if my opinions are still the same. I think the largest difference I have noticed so far is the difference between the two countries organization and structure.

I feel that Canadians really take comfort in structure and organization, and we take the large amount of space we have for granted. For example, the driving is very different and almost hectic in Taiwan compared to Canada, but it works (very well!).

In Canada we stick to our lanes with plenty of room in between, our sidewalks are empty except for pedestrians, and there are no scooters zooming around your car; we drive very defensively and become aggravated when someone doesn't follow the rules. But in Taiwan, everyone is paying attention and lanes sometimes don't matter, but there is rarely road rage. I feel that drivers in Taiwan occupy as much space as possible in the road at all times (scooters will fit where cars cannot), allowing for more efficient transportation as more people can fit on the road at that time (however disorganized it is). This could be one of the reasons why Canada has such bad traffic, we don't efficiently use our large amount of space! 

Another friend I had met in Taipei had jokingly described it as orderly chaos, which I actually believe is accurate when compared to Canadian traffic.

I like the way everything is structured here though; people walk more because everything is closer as compared to Canada. They don’t get angry over simple or trivial things, such as traffic. Their restaurants extend all the way to the sidewalk, and people weave between storefront (which makes a walk very interesting and enjoyable). They even allow bikes to ride on the sidewalk! This kind of system makes for efficient travel, at the cost of less organization.

One more large cultural difference is the way that people spend their money and socialize. Eating at restaurants in Taiwan is a lot more common; people eat out much more often, maybe even every day.

It seems Taiwanese socialize by eating at restaurants, and dislike cooking. The food in Taiwan is much cheaper than in Canada, allowing them to spend time at a dinner table as opposed to hanging out in a mall, spending money on entertainment or amusement (such as a movie or coffee), or drinking at a house. In my opinion Canadians seem much more materialistic, possibly because they have more room to own objects, but also because purchasing objects is cheaper than eating dinner together.

We will see if I still think the same in a few weeks!

Tanguan dessert

"Tanguan" 

(Glutinous rice dumplings in sweet soup)

Now, I live in Yuan Bao temple with my friends from many countries like Malaysia ,Indonesia ,and Canada. Before,I had to prepare many things for this project. Moreover ,This is the first time that I went to other countries alone. So,I was so excited and a little bit nervous. And when I met other partners ,I didn't feel nervous anymore. I feel very happy and fun. I think we can be close friends quickly ,seeing that we have to do many things ,travelling ,and living together everyday.We are care each others. This chance is in my memory everlasting.    


Currently, the temple has a festival which called Fa Hui religious ceremony. And in here, many people come to the temple to participate this ceremony with the faith expression. Today is the 2^nd day of the festival. The festival is 3 days long, and the last day is usually the busiest day.

Today volunteers are preparing foods for the closing day. All foods at the ceremony are vegetarian. Moreover, they are preparing a dessert called “Tangyuan” (Glutinous rice dumplings in sweet soup) to serve tomorrow. It is a traditional Chinese sweet, they make 2 colors, white and pink.

“Tangyuan” is usually served at festivals or Chinese New Year, or anything that is celebrated. They are little glutinous rice balls, and served in syrup or broth. The little dumplings nestled together in the bowl represent togetherness!So,The next day,I will try Tangyuan. I think  it’s make me feel excited.