Hsinchu Confucius Temple (新竹孔廟)

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If you travel to any major city in Taiwan, you will be sure to find a Confucius Temple as there are around twenty of them spread throughout the country. Confucius temples are unlike typical over-the-top Taoist temples as they are constructed with simplicity in mind. 

I always tell my friends that when you visit a Taoist temple, no matter how big or small it is, you can spend hours admiring the dedication to art and the careful detail that went into the construction of the building whereas Confucius temples are completely different and almost Zen-like in how quiet and simple they are. 

A visit to a Taoist temple can be an exciting and noisy experience with large groups of people going about their business and a bit of sensory overload with all the beautiful colours. 

Confucius temples are less busy, a lot more quiet and much better if you are in a reflective type of mood seeking some solace from busy Taiwanese streets. 

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The Main Hall of the Temple

The Hsinchu Confucius Temple (新竹孔廟) has a long history dating back to 1810. The original temple was a centre for Confucian education, and then later for general education. It was used as a dormitory for Japanese soldiers during the Japanese-Colonial period much to the disdain of the local residents who eventually got them to move out. 

In 1975 the temple relocated to a new location situated a short walk behind the Hsinchu Train Station (新竹車站) in the Hsinchu Park (新竹公園) and has since been used primarily for ceremonial purposes as education is now the responsibility of the public school system. 

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The Main Shrine Room

Like all the other Confucius temples in Taiwan, the Hsinchu temple is quiet and on the day I visited it just so happened that I was the only person there (except for the groundskeeper.) The Hsinchu Park next to the temple was quite active however with several dozen senior citizens playing checkers, drinking tea and chatting. 

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Spirit Tablets

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Spiit Tablets

The most important part of the temple is called the "Da Cheng Hall" (大成殿) and in it is housed "spirit tablets" (神位) which are used to designate the seat of a past ancestor or deity.

Above the tablets there are two large plaques with calligraphy:  

The black plaque has inscriptions that are taken from the Analects of Confucius (論語) and say 「有教無類」which translates as "Education for everyone no matter what their background." 

Above that we have a blue plaque that has「萬世師表」which refers to Confucius as a "model teacher for all time." 

One of the common features of all Confucius temples is that there is no imagery or statues of Confucius. This is a rule that goes back almost 500 years to the Ming Dynasty when the emperor decreed that all Confucius temples should be uniform and only have spirit tablets rather than images of the sage. 

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The Groundskeeper seeing me off!

The Hsinchu Confucius Temple doesn't seem to be the tourist destination that its counterparts in Taipei and Tainan seem to be, but it has its own unique charm and one of the reasons I really enjoyed it was that I felt almost completed secluded while visiting!

If you need some quiet time in a peaceful setting while in Hsinchu, the Confucius Temple might be the best place for you! Unless of course it is September 28th which is Confucius's Birthday and Teacher's Day - the busiest day of the year at the temple! 

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Getting There

 

The Temple is a short ten minute walk from the Hsinchu Train Station. When you exit the station, take the underpass to the right of station which will take you to the back of the station.

From there walk straight until you reach Hsinchu Park (新竹公園) and you will find the temple at the back of the park.

For more information about Taiwan’s Confucius Temple’s please check out my Confucius Temple Guide.

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)

Lunar New Year Day 1 (初一)

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The Lunar New Year holiday is a 15 day long celebration celebrated by Asian cultures throughout the world. Before the New Year arrives, Taiwanese people spend a lot of time preparing for the celebrations to come.

These preparations usually include cleaning the house from top to bottom and putting up decorations. Snacks, fireworks, fire crackers, sparklers and all sorts of food needs to be bought well beforehand to avoid the crowds of shoppers. Red envelopes (紅包) or "lucky money" are also prepared as gifts for all the children in the family. 

Lunar New Year's Eve ( 除夕) is the time when the family gets together for a traditional feast and reunion - The feast varies between cultures and regions and the dishes you will find prepared really depends on the family you are celebrating with.

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An elderly Taiwanese woman eating steamed rice balls (湯圓)

In the area of Taiwan where I live a large majority of people are of the Hakka (客家) ethnic minority. Hakkanese food tends to be a bit saltier and has a bit more flavour than typical regional dishes from China. The Hakka-style feast usually consists of several varieties of pork, some fish, braised chicken and vegetables - all of which have different meanings dealing with health and money but ultimately escape me as I’m too busy eating as much as I can shovel into my mouth to really notice.

I wasn't really a fan of eating pork before coming to Taiwan (probably because we’re just not that good at preparing it the way people here do) but Hakka pork dishes certainly turned me to the "pork-side" of the force. These dishes such as salty pork (鹹豬肉), braised pork knuckles (豬腳), Dongpo pork (東坡肉) and Braised pork with preserved vegetables (梅干扣肉) are all amazing and even when I was a vegetarian I'd have a hard time turning down a few bites of these amazing dishes. Its common to find a few of these dishes at a Hakka family's new year feast, so I'm always happy if I'm invited to join in the celebration. 

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A Taiwanese man burning Ghost Money

After the dinner, the fireworks come out and the kids go outside to play with firecrackers and sparklers. Lunar New Year tends to be a noisy time of the year and people set off fireworks at all hours of the day. It's probably the only time of the year when this kind of noise is both allowed and tolerated at the same time. Personally, all these fireworks stress my dog and I out, so if I'm celebrating the holiday with friends, I tend to stay inside when they come out. 

It's probably also not a good idea to give a Canadian boy like myself some fireworks when I've been drinking. I'd likely burn the place down or blow myself up.  

When everyone is finished playing, people come in, eat fruit, a variety of nuts and different types of sweets and exchange red envelopes and offer New Years wishes.

After the envelopes are passed out, people will either start getting ready to go home or if you are hanging out with a fun family, they start gambling and drinking or maybe even singing karaoke. 

There are quite a few games that families play - I've never learned how to play Mahjong, but I have learned a few other games like the card game "Big Two" (大老二) and the really fun dice game "Xibala" (擲骰子) where you have fun gambling and never really care whether you win or lose. 

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A Taiwanese man praying

Yesterday was the first day of the New Year (初一) and is another busy day spent with family. Families in Taiwan typically wake up in the early hours of the morning to perform certain religious rituals known as “bai-bai.” (拜拜) and visits temples. 

I decided to get up really early, grab my camera bag and made my way to some temples to get some shots - usually on the first day of the Lunar New Year I'm too hungover to take part, but this year I decided not to drink!  

Temples at this time are busy as almost every family in Taiwan will visit at least one. This year I visited two smaller temples near home and visited the “Mecca” for Hakka people in Taiwan: “Yi Ming Temple” (義民廟) which is dedicated to Hakka heroes who are hailed as patriots for giving their lives defending Taiwan from a revolt during the Qing dynasty. 

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The offering tables to the gods in front of Yimin Temple

Yi Min Temple was busy yesterday filled with thousands of people making offerings to the gods, eating some dishes provided by the temple and trying their luck with the lottery (which is also a popular activity during the Lunar New Year.) The temple was loud, jam-packed with people and full of activity. Everyone seemed to be in really good cheer and having fun. 

When Taiwanese people visit temples during Lunar New Year, they usually buy tools for worship at little shops near the temple which include incense sticks, ghost money and some kind of food offering. After lighting the incense they will make their way to a shrine and raise the sticks to their heads and introduce themselves to the God afterwards making a request for good health for themselves and their family as well as a little prosperity if the god sees fit. 

Once they finish speaking to the god they bow several times and thank him, her or it and move on to other shrines. When they finish with all the shrines in the temple (usually there are several) they will leave a food offering on a table in front of the temple which is offered to the god as thanks. 

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Bowing after praying.

Every temple in Taiwan is a bit different, so each family tends to visit the same temple every year as a matter of familiarity. The “bai bai” culture is engrained in almost every person in the country whether or not they believe in the religions or not - so while a lot of the population may actually be agnostic - most will still practice these rituals as a matter of respect for their culture and traditions. 

When people are finished with the religious stuff, they have the option of waiting in line and being fed by people who volunteer at the temple. Its just my guess, but from the long lines I saw yesterday at Yimin Temple, they likely fed several thousand people. 

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Trying their luck with scratch tickets!

There are others like myself though who would rather not wait in line, so they buy something to eat at one of the many vendors around the temple and they will also try their Lunar New Year luck with lottery tickets and scratch tickets. There are usually long lines to buy the tickets as well but it seems like it is important to try their luck - so the lines in the case are likely much more tolerable. 

After a long day of waking up early, visiting a few temples and having lunch with the family it is usually time to go back home and rest. There are still a few more days of the vacation left and there is still lots to do! 

The second day of the Lunar New Year (初二) is when wives typically go back to their home for a reunion with their families which involves more eating! 

For me though, it just so happens to be my dogs third birthday - I'm planning on spending a relaxing day with him and then heading down south in the next day or so for some more Lunar New Year temple festivities in central Taiwan.

Hopefully the weather stays nice so that I can also get in a good hike before going back to work!   

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Thick Incense Smoke at Yimin Temple

I hope everyone in Taiwan is having a great New Year vacation.

I'll be posting more in a few days.

新年快樂～

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots) 

Chau-Yin Temple (關西潮音禪寺)

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Four-Faced Buddha (四面佛) 

It is a short scooter drive from my place in Taoyuan south into the mountains of Hsinchu county to the popular old village of Neiwan (內灣) Most people take the train from Hsinchu, or they drive their car and get stuck in massive traffic jams or lines getting in and out of the village.

I can't even count how many times I've driven over on a Sunday and sat in a little tea shop drinking Hakka Lei-Cha (客家擂茶) and eating peanut sticky rice (客家麻糬.) I just take the short drive on my scooter, pass all the cars on the road there and don't have to pay for parking! Its always a win-win situation. 

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Guanyin (觀音)

My drive to Neiwan takes me through another Hakka town called Guanxi (關西) I noticed over the past year or two that a strange (non-Taiwanese-looking) temple popping up over all the other buildings in the village.

It looked like they were constructing some sort of temple, but was nothing like Taiwan's traditional temple architecture and the entrance was always blocked, so despite being nosy and wanting to figure out what it was, I just looked at it from afar each time I passed by and gradually it seemed to become more and more reminiscent of a Buddhist 'Wat' (temple) from Thailand.  

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Temple protector

The temple has since opened and my suspicions have ultimately been confirmed. The temple really is a "Thai-style" temple and is the first of its kind in Taiwan which probably makes it pretty special.

At this point, I should probably remind my dear readers that Taiwan and Thailand are of course two different countries. One is in East Asia and the other is in South East Asia

(You don't know how many times I've had to answer this question!)  

The temple is named Chau-Yin Temple (關西潮音禪寺) and has recently completed construction and officially opened to the public.

The original Chau-Yin Temple was built in Guanxi in 1913 and was a simple Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist monastery in an old style ‘three section house' (三合院.) 

From the research I've done about it, it seems like the abbot of the temple and some followers went to Thailand for quite a few years and upon their arrival back in Taiwan decided to construct a new residence for their growing numbers of monks and nuns.

They decided that they would build a Thai-style temple to reflect their time spent in Thailand and would replace the modest monastery that they had used for decades which had become dilapidated. 

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(Left-Right) Medicine Buddha, the Buddha, Amitabha

The grounds of the temple are quite large and it is next to a river bank which provides a natural surrounding to the temple despite being close to the main road through Guanxi.

When you enter the main parking lot of the temple you are met by a giant 19 meter high sitting Guanyin statue (pictured above) as well as a small outside hall with several stone Buddha statues. Through the main gates there is a small shine to the 'four faced Buddha' (四面佛) and further on is the main building with its beautiful white walls and red roof. 

There isn't really much to see in the monastery other than the main shrine room. Its a functioning monastery with both monks and nuns, so you can't really wander around through people's living quarters.

When I visited, I just checked out the main shrine room and greeted a few of the monks and nuns living there with smiles. They probably weren't expecting a foreign guy to be walking through so they seemed a bit curious to see me walking around. 

The main shrine room has a pretty large shrine to the Medicine Buddha (彌勒佛), the Shakyamuni Buddha (釋迦牟尼佛) and Amitabha (阿彌陀佛) which are all represented in the Burmese Mandalay style and a bit different than what you'd normally see in Taiwan. 

Outside of the temple is probably the main attraction for Taiwanese people which is is the shrine to the so-called "Four-Faced Buddha." 

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Erawan Shrine in Bangkok

Phra Phrom or The Four-Faced Buddha (四面佛) has become popular recently in Taiwan with shrines popping up all over the place. I have thought it was a strange phenomenon for a while now, but with so many random street side shrines popping up (I can think of at least 8 different shrines off-hand) I thought there must be a reason for it, so I tried to do some research.  

The photo above is a shot I took in Bangkok at the Erawan shrine last year. The Erawan shrine is an extremely popular spot in urban Bangkok for people to visit. The shrine is thought to bring good luck and health to all who visit, so as you can imagine, whenever you go, you'll find a lot of people both Thai and tourist alike. 

Here is a description of what the statue means and what it looks like: 

• The four faces symbolize the four books of the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures and the source of all knowledge in the creation of the universe.

• The eight hands, symbolize the omnipresence and power of Lord Brahma.

• The upper right hand carries a rosary, symbolizing the cycle of life from creation to death. The upper left hand carries the Vedas, symbolizing knowledge and intellect.

• The lower left hand carries a pot of water representing cosmic energy of creation. The lower right hand bestows grace and protection.

• Reference Link

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Four-Faced Buddha (四面佛) 

The confusing part of the whole thing is, that the Four-Faced Buddha isn't actually even a Buddha at all - its an image of the Hindu god Brahma. 

To explain my confusion you have to understand that Buddhism as a philosophy splits itself into a couple of schools of thought. The first is Theravada which is the 'original' Buddhism and is most popular in South East Asia. Followers of this school strive for their own personal enlightenment whereas in Mahayana (which is more common in Tibet, China and Japan) followers strive for the enlightenment of all living beings through compassionate actions. 

This is of course a very simplistic explanation of both schools and I could go much more in depth about them, but the key point apart from their differences is that both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism are atheistic in nature and do not accept the notion that there are any deities let alone a divine creator.

So why is Brahma, the Hindu divine creator being worshipped by Buddhists? 

I believe this is an issue of cultural assimilation. You may accuse me of nitpicking, but Buddhism should at its core reject the idea of gods - but since Thai culture has had such close interaction with Indian culture, there has been a sort of cultural assimilation of many aspects of Hinduism in Thai culture and the Brahma image in this case.

My confusion in the matter lies in the fact that, it was okay for Thai Buddhists which adhere to Theravada Buddhism to assimilate Brahma into their practice, but why are Mahayana Buddhists, especially these Ch'an Buddhists in Taiwan doing the same?

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Chau-Yin Temple (潮音禪寺)

Is it a matter of cultural assimilation? The effects of globalization? 

For me, I would take a stab in the dark and explain it like this: The Taiwanese and Chinese culture as a whole are very superstitious. They tend to be very interested in things that bring good luck and try to avoid things that are said to bring bad luck.

The shrine at Erawan is famous throughout Asia for bringing great luck to the people who visit so the spread of the four-faced Buddha throughout Asia thus has nothing to do with the statue being a "Buddha" or Hinduism spreading through Asia and more a matter of convenience for people who can't always travel to Bangkok. 

For the longest time, Taiwanese people would travel to Japan to visit UNIQLO, Hong Kong for H&M, Zara and a few other international brands. Globalization however has brought these brands to Taiwan and has reduced the need for people to travel in order to buy the things they want. 

If you look at it like this, bringing Phra Phrom to Taiwan just might be a great way to bring wealth, good health and prosperity to the country if you're prone to believe in these kinds of things.  

So, if you are superstitious, you just might get excited about that. If not, just remember that the teachings of the Buddha were ultimately just guidelines to follow and were never meant to be a religion. You can do whatever you like with your life as long as you treat others with respect and compassion. 

No matter how you feel about this kind of thing, if you have a chance, be sure to visit Taiwan's only Thai-style temple - It is beautifully constructed and of course quite unique in Taiwan's religious scene. 

If you have any questions, or you want to tell me how absolutely wrong I am about my conclusions, please feel free to comment below!  

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Gallery / Flickr (click for higher res) 

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Getting There