World Religions An oral presentation for

Cultural and Ethnic

in Taiwan: Structure of Taiwan

Buddhism Instructor: Prof. David Blundell, Ph.D.

Islam International Master’s

Program in Taiwan
Catholicism Studies 2008
Joe Landgrebe
Louis Liao National Chengchi
Tim Hogan University, Taiwan
 Questions to consider
• What significance does religion have in
Taiwanese culture?
• What particular Taiwanese characteristics
do religions take on in Taiwan?
• What are the functions of holy places?
 Taiwan’s Greatest Cultural Export

• Can you guess?

• The Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu

Chi Association (BCRTCA) or
Fojiao Ciji Gongde Hui
慈濟基金會
• Different Niche
 Background
• Zhengyan
• Born in 1937
• Taichung County
• Prone to visionary
experiences
• Ill mother
• Helped with her
father’s business
 Early Religious Experience
• Ciyuan Temple in
Fengyuan
• Dissatisfied with
“funeral Buddhism”
• Live by Baizhang
Huaihai’s dictum
“A day without work is
a day without food.”
• Became an ordained
nun at the age of 26
 Early Vows
• Not to accept alms
• Not to perform funerals
• Not to put on dharma meetings
• Not to seek donations
 The Seeds of BCRTCA
• 1966
• Hospital’s refusal to
give care to a
miscarriage
• Conversation with
Catholic nuns
• Dedicated herself to
charity
• Thirty followers put
her plan into action
 Founding of the Hualien Hospital
• Lack of modern
facilities
• Dependent on local
inadequate facilities
• Forced to send
patients to Christian
missionary hospitals
 BCRTCA’s Appeal in Taiwan
• Use of Hokkien dialect
• Grassroot support from native Taiwanese
and Hakka population
• Dispense of foreign aid in favor of self-
help
• Charismatic leadership
• Engages primarily in medical and social
welfare
• Blend of Confucianism and Buddhism
 Women’s Religious Phenomenon
• Gives women meaningful work
• Men’s auxiliary
• Abide by traditional roles: caring,
compassion, humility, gentleness, and
harmony
 Interesting Facts
• Taiwan’s largest
recycler
– 5000 recycling centers

• World’s largest non-

government database
of bone marrow
donors
 Relief Efforts

• 2001 El Salvador
Earthquake
• 2004 Tsunami
• 2005 Hurricane
Katrina
• 2008 Sichuan
earthquake
 Modern Day

• Most effective aid

agencies in the region
• Controls an enormous
amount of wealth
• 10 million members
worldwide
• Women-80% volunteers
• 20% of Taiwan’s
population
• Taiwan’s Greatest Cultural
Export
Catholicism
• The fourth or fifth largest religion in
Taiwan
• Approximately 300,000 followers in 2007
• Organized into 7 diocese
• Hierarchical structure directed by a local
bishop, serves under cardinals and the
Pope
• 793 churches
 Timeline:
Catholicism in Taiwan
1624—Catholicism arrives in
northern Taiwan, Spanish
priests convert 4,000
1642—Priests expelled by the
Dutch
1859—Return to Taiwan, church
established in southern
Taiwan, Wanjin church
(basilica) established 1863
1945—End of Japanese era,
7-10,000 followers, 52
churches
1949—Missionaries arrive from
China with the KMT
1953-63—Followers increase
from 23,000 to 300,000
1968—Followers reach 400,000,
3.5% of population
2007—Followers number
300,000, 1.7% of population,
793 churches
Growth of Christianity in Taiwan

Catholics Protestants

700000
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
1895 1945 1948 1953 1963 1968 1990 1999 2007
 Education and Social Work
• Schools
– Fu Jen Catholic University
– Cardinal Tien School of Nursing & Midwifery 耕莘高級護理助產職業學
校
– Blessed Imelda's School 靜修女子高級中學
– Kuang Jen Middle School 光仁中學
– Kuang Jen Primary School 光仁小學
– Providence University 靜宜大學
– Taichung Viator High School 臺中市私立衛道高級中學
– Wenzao Ursuline College of Modern Languages 文藻外語學院
• Social work
– Built and operates clinics and hospitals
– Provides social services for children, women, elderly, handicapped,
foreign laborers
– Cited as an influence by Zheng Yan, founder of Ciji Foundation
– Established mutual aid credit cooperatives to help indigenous people
build homes
 Conservatism
• Failed to carry out post-Vatican II social
teachings that called for clergy and laity
to cooperate to reform oppressive
social structures and work for peace,
social justice, and human rights

• Why?
– Young, small church, needed to focus on
evangelization (official church view)
– Associated with mainlander population, and
having a transitional mindset of being in
Taiwan temporarily
– Predominance of foreign priests and nuns
– Non-participation in democratization
movement
– Laity was subordinate to the authority of the
clergy
 Catholic Church and Taiwan’s
Indigenous People
• Presence of churches in nearly
all indigenous communities
• Foreign priests, local lay
members
• Mass in Mandarin and
indigenous languages
• Incorporation of reminders of
indigenous people’s culture in
church
• Operation of pre-schools and
youth groups
• Participation of priest in
community life
Sacred Space: Order and Images
The Church and the Youth
 Blending of Atayal belief
and Catholicism
• Home shrines
– Atayal village in Taian Township, Miaoli
County
– Home of Catholic Tang family, where
ancestral tablet is worshipped alongside
crucifix and image of Jesus Christ and the
Virgin Mary
– Combination of Han ancestor-worship,
Roman Catholicism, and Atayal (utux) belief
systems
– Tang said priest counseled that “one should
not forget the ancestors,” and that the
government also supported a similar belief.”
– Priest had warned that tablet could be
worshipped, but that it should be placed
across the room
• May Bo Qing, “Naming and identity among
the Atayal,” In Search of the Hunters and
Their Tribes: Studies in the History and
Culture of the Taiwan Indigenous People,
2001
 Ancestor worship
• Uvung/Maho at the end of summer
• Blend of indigenous and imported belief
• Atayal practice of leaving offerings of food on bamboo sticks set into
the ground alongside roads which the spirits or ancestors were said
to pass
• When uvung/maho held on Sunday, the priest cancels church and
attends celebration
• Held at cemetery, people burn incense, light candles, and leave
offerings of food, ask ancestors for protection
• Later, people return home to feast, drink, sing, and dance
• Going to graves of ancestors is a recent development
• Collective worship was previously practiced, utux was “general not
particular”
• Catholic and Protestant Atayal celebrate Uvung/maho on different
dates
Mukiraki / Syakalu / Shilu
1912-1992 1915-1998 1929-2004
1913-1968 1959-2008 1958-2008
 Questions to consider
• What significance does religion have in
Taiwanese culture?
• What particular Taiwanese characteristics
do religions take on in Taiwan?
• What are the functions of holy places?