Introduction of The Yuan Bao Temple Gods (Part I)

       Yuanbao tample is located on the three-way intersection of daya road, jinhwa north road and meichuan west road. having been built for over two hunderd years, the temple as numerous believers throughout the island, and is one of the most important religion center in central taiwan.





    















          The temple offers sacrifices in worshiping to buddha bausheng, which is also known as "Master Dadou" , who was a famous doctor in north song dynasty. through his life,  master  dadou was respected by people as a kind and excellent doctor. after his death, he was worshiped by people in fuchien and Taiwan.

Baosheng Dadi 保生大帝

Lord Baosheng (保生大帝 Baosheng Dadi or Pao Sheng Ta Ti) Known as Wu Tao (吳本) during his lifetime, he worked as a physician and is credited with once bringing a dusty skeleton back to life. After his death he gained a reputation for interceding in what seemed to be hopeless cases. He led a diligent and virtuous life devoted to healing the sick and ridding the world of disease. Even after his enlightenment he chose to stay in the mortal realm to continue to ease suffering. He was a skilled doctor and Taoist practitioner who was credited with performing medical miracles,  including applying eye drops to a dragon’s eye and removing a foreign object from a tiger’s throat. he began to be worshiped as a deity. His deified status was officially recognized by the Hongxi Emperor of the Ming Dynasty who conferred on him the title of “Imperial Inspector at Heavenly Gate, Miracle Doctor of Compassion Relief, Great Taoist Immortal, and the Long-lived, Unbounded, Life Protection Emperor.

          

         On the first  floor of the major temple hall of Yuan Bao temple is the statue of general Guan Yu  (關羽), goddess of childbearing and the civil god.

Guan Yu (關羽)

Guan Yu (關羽), the red-faced, bearded hero of the Three Kingdoms and symbol of loyalty. He is the patron God of policemen and law, and gangsters, as he shows forgiveness, and often also serves as "Wu Sheng". Guan Yu (Kuan Yu) (died 219) was a general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han Dynasty of China. He played a significant role in the civil war that led to The Collapse of the Han Dynasty and the establishment of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, of which Liu Bei was the first emperor. Guan Yu: Dharma Protecting deity who helps practitioners with worldly matters. Historically, he was a legendary military general (160-219 CE), loyal to Emperor Liu Bei. Also known as the "Lord with the Magnificent Beard," he is usually depicted with a red face (symbolizing extreme courage and loyalty) and holding a long-handled sword known as a "guandao." He is regarded as a Taoist saint and god of war and martial arts. After he died he sought refuge with a Buddhist master and quickly obtained liberation whereupon he became a protector of the Dharma.

Zhusheng Niangniang (註生娘娘)

"The Maiden Who Brings Children"), also referred to in Taiwan as Zhusheng Niangniang (註生娘娘),

The Goddess of Childbirth or Zhu Sheng Niang Niang is a fertility deity in the Taoist patheon.

Goddess of Birth and Childcare is in charge of pregnancy, delivery of infant, protection of mother and child.

Women who hope to have children or these who are productivity challenged pray to her for help in conceiving and safe delivery.

Cheng Huang

Cheng Huang, ( Chinese: “Wall and Moat”) also known as Chenghuang Shen, Wade-Giles romanization Ch’eng Huang,  in Chinese mythology, the City God, or the spiritual magistrate and guardian deity of a particular Chinese city. Because dead spirits reputedly informed the god of all good and evil deeds within his jurisdiction, it was popularly believed that devout prayers offered in Cheng Huang’s temple.

         Yuanbao temple enjoys its long history. ever since it was built, the temple has been maintaining its tradition, its mission of passing throug its history. it glorifies the kind spirit in traditional culture, teaching people to have mercy, help the needs, guiding right from wrong and cultivating a peaceful land in our heart.

Wish for the Best from Bao Sheng emperor

On 6th of February, Miss Lee taught us on how to ask blessing from the Bao Sheng emperor. Most of us asked about love and future partner because they hope to get good husband before they reach 30 years old.

The container is called as "Qian Tong".  “Qian" is the bamboo sticks inside the container. There are total of 67 bamboo sticks and one of the sticks is called "Tou Qian", which one needs to make a small donation for the temple. All the bamboo sticks are labeled with numbers in Chinese words and each of them has its explanation in all aspects, e.g. lawsuit, habitation, Feng shui, marriage, physiology, making money, job and fame, trip, family, friend and family from far away and lost property.

(from left to right) Xiao  Bei, Wu Bei, Wu Bei. All are Sheng Bei.

The thing that we can have a “conversation” between the Bao Sheng emperor and us is “Sheng Bei” as shown in the photo, which looks like two symmetric crescent moon. Whatever question we ask the God, we need to keep it short and straightforward, or else He might be confused.

Standing in front of the Bao Sheng emperor, before we ask for His help, we have to tell him our name, where we are from and our birthday so that He can identify us. Next, we need to toss the “Sheng Bei” to get the permission to ask a question from the God. If the answer is yes, you will have a “Xiao Bei” or else it will be a “Wu Bei”. After that, you start to ask your question, which can be related to family, relationship, business and so on which I mentioned above. Keep in mind that ask the question which the God is able to give a “yes” or a “no”.

And again, you need to ask permission from Him whether we can "qiu qian" or not. "Qiu qian" means making a wish and ask for His blessing by using 67 bamboo sticks.

Once you get a “Xiao Bei”, you can proceed the next step, taking a bamboo stick. Use both hands to grab the all the bamboo sticks at a certain height and release them to see which stick bound the highest in the container. The highest one will be the message from the God. As I mentioned above, if you get a “Tou Qian”, you have to make a donation to the temple and then only repeat the same procedure as shown in the flowchart below. 

And last but not least, get the message according to the number on the stick you get from the counter. There are many aspects in the paper (message/reply), however the reply from the God is true only for the aspect that you asked, whereas the rest is just for reference.

You might think that it is just a kind of prediction but somehow, to me, it is quite true. Because sometimes when you feel you have no other choice or helpless, you will wish you can solve the problem smoothly with the God's guideline or clue. No matter how, it is a kind of belief. Believe it or not, it depends on how you see it from different perspectives. 

Introduction of Yuan Bao Temple in Taichung

Here is Yuan Bao Temple (Yuan Bao Gong). If you just see outside the temple, you may think that it looks small. But, if you come inside, you will realize that Yuan Bao Temple is very huge and have many exciting ,amazing things waiting for you.

Okay,Let's "Come and see Yuan Bao Gong" 

Yuan Bao Gong is a temple that was established in 1791.It is located on the three-way intersection of  Daya Road ,Jinhwa North Road and  Meichuan west Road in Taichung,Taiwan. At the gate of the temple, there are 2 old trees which have more than 200 year, standing beside the main gate. It is very huge. The gate itself has an intricate design on the top.Inside the small tradition courtyard is a wrought iron ghost money furnace.The entrance to temple itself has more traditional multicolored wood carvings.Inside the temple,it has 5 floors.We can come here and worship.There are God Yu-Huan ,god Don-Hua, goddess Jin-Mu,god San-Kuan ,god of Agriculture, god Siyuan-Tien ,god Wu-Dou ,god dou-Mu and god Tai-shuei. 

Opposite the temple has a little garden. It is in-charged  by Lai Cuo Bu Cultural Association. Lai Cuo Bu is a place named after the incident which the Lai (surname) family produced sugar cane in Taichung and sold in China. The money that they earned was used to develop Lai Cuo Bu and Yuan Bao Temple is a religious center of the place. This is why most of the residents staying near Yuan Bao Temple have the surname of Lai. In the garden, we can come to enjoy this wonderful place because the garden has lots of trees and flowers such as Sakura, Rose, Marigold etc. Those flora and fauna are actually managed by the association itself. Furthermore,there are some fitness facilities for public use to work out and build their body. It is so shady, natural and beautiful for the people to relax.

THE EXPERIENCE OF TAIWANESE CULTURE

Taiwan for me is an enthralling experience. I get the opportunity to explore the rich Taiwanese culture and see some of the oldest temple in Taiwan. One of them is Yuanbao Temple. Yuan Bao temple mainly worships Baosheng Dadi, the god of medicine and health, built in 1791. During his lifetime, Baosheng Emperor (Dadi) was known to have done medical miracles.

My love for travel have open my mind to many experiences, for someone majoring in Law Science I never think I’ll find culture and history compelling but am glad to say, that have change because of this particular experience. One's culture is an amalgamation of so many different elements like history, art, cuisine, language and many other tangible and non-tangible aspects. Studying a single culture in-depth requires immense effort and time to fathom the core values and fundamentals

In Taiwan, I have the opportunity to make lots of new friends, from many countries from all over the world. Each one of them teach me something about life, about culture and about people. And then I begin to understand if the different cultures of the world are the essence of various human civilizations, which we have come to acknowledge on a global level and revere as part of each nation's core beliefs and traditions. And we need to respect and appreciate it.

Taiwan teach me many things. I learn how respectful people can be, and also how delicious food can be. Everything is new and different for me. From the remarkable “Old Temple”, tradition, good people, night market, milk bubble tea, stinky tofu, and the list goes on and on. There’s a lot of good things and experience inTaiwan, Taiwan give me the point of view of a totally different culture from mine. I become more open mainded and my perspective to see things have change because of this. Changing is the thing that I always prefer to be with, it is not only helping me in enhancing flexibility skill to adapt with changing of life, but also it pushes me so that trying my best to archive what I want. As a girl coming from Indonesian  Culture, I have never dream about join the tample run project before and gaining a completely new different experience like this, but now I’m glad to be part of it. I never  think I’ll really love this place so much.