Taiwan's Religious Beliefs: An Empire of Faith Grown from Fear

30-Second Overview: Taiwan has approximately 15,000 registered religious buildings, more than the number of convenience stores on the entire island. The largest group is not the Mazu temples (about 672) that most people assume, but King Ye (Wangye) temples (about 1,330)—a deity of fear originating from the "sending away of plague king boats," specializing in curing plagues. In the same temple, you might see Buddhist Guanyin, Taoist Jade Emperor, and folk belief Earth Gods sharing incense. Every lunar March, over a million people follow the Dajia Mazu pilgrimage for nine days and eight nights, covering 340 kilometers. In 2014, Xingtian Temple, which receives six million visitors annually, removed all incense burners, becoming Taiwan's first "incense-free" major temple. The 2025 Freedom House Global Freedom Report ranked Taiwan as the second freest country in Asia. This island's faith has never been a cloud-based abstraction—it is at the corner of your street, starting from the moment 17th-century military immigrants stepped off their boats.

In 1995, a man named Liao Wu-chih stood on the roof of Baoan Temple in Dalongdong, Taipei, watching a jiannian (sculpted clay and mosaic) master embed pieces of colored glass back into their positions from two hundred years ago¹. Baoan Temple was built in 1804, a temple brought by immigrants from Tong'an carrying the faith of Doctor Bao (Baosheng Dadi). It survived the Japanese colonial period, the post-war era, and urban expansion, but by the 1990s it was in a state of severe disrepair. The Taiwan government listed it as a second-class historical monument in 1985, but no one repaired it after the listing.

Liao Wu-chih decided to raise funds himself for the restoration. For seven years, he took not a single cent from the government, insisting on using original craftsmanship and materials². He recruited old masters from across Taiwan for jiannian, stone carving, wood carving, and painting, some of whose techniques were on the verge of extinction. "It is easy to repair an old temple with new materials," he later said in an interview, "but that is not restoration; that is renovation."

In 2003, Baoan Temple received the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage Conservation Award, becoming the first in Taiwan³. The jury citation read: "A model for community-based restoration."

This story is actually a microcosm of the entire island's religious history: the government steps back, the people take over; skills are nearly lost, but someone insists on passing them on; a temple is not just a temple, it is a container for a city's memory. To understand why this island grew to have the highest density of temples in the world, we must return to more than three hundred years ago: to those people who tied deity statues to their bodies and gambled their lives crossing the Black Water Gap (the Taiwan Strait).

Why This Island Has 15,000 Temples

According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, there are approximately 15,000 registered religious buildings in Taiwan as of 2024[^4]: more than the approximately 13,000 convenience stores on the entire island⁴. Tainan is the city with the highest temple density in Taiwan, with 1,641 temples recorded in 2015⁵.

But hidden beneath this number is a contrast that most people do not realize: the largest group is not Mazu temples, but King Ye (Wangye) temples.

The Academia Sinica's "Taiwan Temple Database," based on cross-referencing the Ministry of the Interior's religious registrations, shows approximately 1,330 King Ye temples and approximately 672 Mazu temples; King Ye temples are nearly double the number of Mazu temples⁶. "King Ye faith is particularly prevalent in southern Taiwan, paired with Mazu faith in central Taiwan, commonly known as: 'Southern King Ye, Central Mazu,' and also referred to as 'Mad March for Mazu, April King Ye Birthday'"⁷.

What kind of deity is King Ye? His original function was that of a plague god. "King Ye faith originated in the early Chinese southeastern coastal region's 'sending away of plague king boats,' drifting from the Xiamen and Quanzhou areas to various places along Taiwan's southwestern coast."⁸ Coastal residents would take a concrete embodiment of plague: a wooden boat filled with offerings, and push it into the sea, hoping the plague would leave with the boat. The plague boats that drifted to Taiwan were picked up by locals and enshrined in temples; thus, the plague god became a guardian deity.

📝 Curator's Note: The most dominant deity on an island originates from the fear of plague. This is not a choice of mercy, but a survival reflex of a medically backward immigrant society—handing over the uncontrollable to a personified entity that can be imagined. When diseases later became controllable, King Ye did not disappear; his function shifted to driving away evil, ensuring peace, and protection. Gods do not die; they just change jobs.

Mazu follows the same logic. Mazu was originally a sea goddess from Meizhou, Fujian, during the Song Dynasty, whose function was to bless fishermen with safe voyages. In the 17th century, military immigrants crossing the Black Water Gap (the Taiwan Strait) to Taiwan tied Mazu statues to ship masts. When the ships arrived, the deities arrived too. But Mazu on the island quickly expanded her functions: from a sea goddess to healing diseases, driving away evil, praying for children, protecting crops, assisting with exams, and boosting business: she handles everything. A sea goddess with a single function became an all-purpose mother goddess of the island.

Earth Gods (Tudi Gong) followed the same path. Originally the field gods of an agricultural society, managing the harvest of a mu (unit of land); after urbanization, their function shifted to commerce. Some Earth God temples in Taipei's Xinyi District are believed to be "particularly good at helping people make money," with bustling incense⁹. The functions of deities evolve with social structures.

340 Kilometers, Nine Days and Eight Nights

Every lunar March, the entire island is taken over by a religious march.

The Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage and Incense Offering begins at 10:45 PM on April 4, 2025, and returns on April 13. It lasts nine days and eight nights, spanning four counties and cities—Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, and Chiayi—twenty-one townships, circling nearly a hundred temples, with a total distance of 340 kilometers¹⁰. The Discovery Channel listed it as one of the world's top three religious events in 2004¹¹. In 2009, UNESCO listed Mazu beliefs and customs as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity¹².

There is something special about the departure: the supply stations along the route. Not arranged by the temple organization, but spontaneously set up by residents along the way. Free rice noodles, sesame oil chicken, massages, painkillers, razors, sanitary pads, sports drinks. "Mazu is walking, everyone helps."¹³ An old grandmother might save money all year just to cook a pot of soup enough for a hundred people during these few days. She does not know these pilgrims, and the pilgrims do not know her, but Mazu knows them all.

Even more magical is the tradition of the divine palanquin turning on its own. The palanquin is not carried by people; it is "people following Mazu"—when the palanquin suddenly turns sharply, sprints, or turns back, the bearers can only follow, they cannot resist¹⁴. This is the most physical moment of folk belief: the deity is not in the sky; the deity is in the wood, and the wood moves itself.

In recent years, the pilgrimage has become increasingly complex. In 2016, "Mazu Culture" was written into China's "13th Five-Year Plan" and the "Belt and Road" initiative; in 2018, a Fujian delegation proposed establishing a national-level leadership body composed of the United Front Work Department, the Taiwan Affairs Office, the Ministry of Culture, and the Fujian Provincial Party Committee to promote Mazu culture¹⁵. The CCP packages Mazu as the "Goddess of Peace across the Strait," funding cross-strait pilgrimage groups. The problem is that most Taiwanese Mazu devotees just want to worship Mazu, not be represented by anyone. On the question of "whether Mazu is a united front weapon," there is no consensus within the pilgrimage队伍.

📝 Curator's Note: Mazu in Taiwan is simultaneously religion, culture, tourism, and politics. China wants to turn her into a symbol of "both sides belong to one China," while Taiwanese devotees use the annual million-person徒步 to turn her into "our island's own deity." A deity can be several things at once; this is not a contradiction in Taiwan, but a tacit understanding.

Three Religions Sharing One Roof

Walk into Longshan Temple in Mengjia, Taipei, and you will see a scene that is hard for outsiders to understand: the main hall enshrines Guanyin Bodhisattva (Buddhism), one side of the rear hall enshrines Mazu (Taoism/folk belief), the other side enshrines Wenchang Dijun (Taoism, in charge of exam luck), and the side halls have Yuelao (folk belief, in charge of marriage), Nusheng Niangniang (bestowing children), and Guan Sheng Dijun (martial god of wealth)¹⁶. One temple, at least seven deities, belonging to three different religious systems. Taiwanese people do not feel this is conflicting.

This is the most unique aspect of Taiwan's faith: the unity of the three religions is not philosophy, it is spatial configuration. Buddhists, Taoists, and folk believers enter the same temple, each worshipping their own deities, without looking down on each other. A 2019 survey by Academia Sinica also presents this hybridity: 49.3% of the population believes in traditional folk religion, 14% in Buddhism, 12.4% in Taoism, 5.5% in Protestantism, 2.1% in I-Kuan Tao, and 1.3% in Catholicism¹⁷. But in practice, a person might simultaneously worship Mazu, pray to Guanyin, visit an Earth God temple during festivals, and so on. This is not apostasy; it is daily life.

How did this hybridity come about? The historical context is that after the 17th century, sea-crossing immigrants brought their respective hometown deities. Space on the island was limited, and temples could not be built in such large numbers, so the deities were placed together. Over time, functional division rather than sectarian separation became the dominant logic: for exam luck, seek Wenchang; for marriage, seek Yuelao; for business, seek Guan Gong; for peace, seek Mazu; for children, seek Nusheng Niangniang: each deity has their own specialty, and devotees worship according to need, without discussing sects.

There was an event in the post-war period that made this hybridity even more explicit. On May 31, 1945, the US military bombed Taipei. Longshan Temple's main hall was destroyed, but the Guanyin Bodhisattva statue inside was intact amidst the rubble¹⁸. At the time, folk believers, Buddhists, and Taoists who had worshipped this Guanyin all considered this a miracle. The statue did not distinguish religions; miracles do not either.

📝 Curator's Note: Westerners often ask "what religion do Taiwanese people actually believe in?" This question itself is wrong—it presupposes the premise that "a person can only believe in one religion." But for Taiwanese people, "what you believe" and "who you worship" are two different things. You can say you are Buddhist for your whole life, but still worship Earth God when visiting your娘家 (parents' home) on the 2nd and 15th of each month, go to Wenchang before exams, and worship Guan Gong for business. This is not disloyalty; it is division of labor.

From Ban to Legalization: I-Kuan Tao's 34-Year Journey

In 1953, the Nationalist government ordered the ban of I-Kuan Tao on the grounds that it "involved superstition and endangered local public order"¹⁹. This religion, originating from Shandong, China, combining Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, went underground in Taiwan, surviving through oral transmission. For thirty-four years, the number of believers only increased.

In 1987: the same year Taiwan lifted martial law: forty Legislative Council members signed a petition calling on the government to legalize I-Kuan Tao. In March 1988, the "General Association of I-Kuan Tao of the Republic of China" was established²⁰. I-Kuan Tao became the first religion in post-war Taiwan to go from illegal to legal: the timeline of lobbying began even a few months before the lifting of martial law itself (July 15, 1987). As of March 2018, there were approximately 800,000 recorded I-Kuan Tao believers in Taiwan²¹.

I-Kuan Tao's characteristics are strict vegetarianism + unity of the three religions + global expansion. It has dojos in over 80 countries²², advocating unique eschatological views such as "The Third Period of Calamity" and "The Arrival of Three Buddhas." But the most easily understood feature for outsiders is: the food at I-Kuan Tao dojos is delicious, fully vegetarian, free, and they will not force you to join.

📝 Curator's Note: I-Kuan Tao's history is a microcosm of Taiwan's religious liberalization. A religion banned by the state for thirty-four years did not disappear; instead, it accumulated grassroots mobilization energy during its underground period; on the eve of the lifting of martial law, it became a touchstone for political reform—"whether this underground religion can be legalized" became an indicator of testing the government's openness. Today, I-Kuan Tao is already one of the mainstream religions, but what it taught Taiwan was not just religion, but the fact that "political repression cannot kill faith."

Post-War Newcomers: The Four Great Buddhist Mountains

If King Ye and Mazu represent the fear of sea-crossing immigrants, new Buddhism represents another need of post-war Taiwanese society: after urbanization, economic growth, and the popularization of education, people needed not just peace and wealth, but also meaning.

The Four Great Buddhist Mountains rose in this context:

• Tzu Chi Foundation (1966, Hualien): Master Cheng Yen started with thirty housewives saving "five cents a day"²³. Today, Tzu Chi has volunteers in 68 countries and has provided relief in 136 countries²⁴. "For Buddhism, for All Beings" is Tzu Chi's core spirit.
• Fo Guang Shan (1967, Dashu, Kaohsiung): Master Hsing Yun broke ground for the temple in Mazhu Garden in Dashu, advocating "Humanistic Buddhism"—Buddhism is not in the mountains and forests, but in the human world. He has established over 300 temples and dojos and 16 Buddhist academies worldwide, and founded Nan Hua University, Fu Guang University, and the Fo Guangshan Buddha Memorial Center²⁵. Master Hsing Yun passed away at 5 PM on February 5, 2023, at the Kaishan Hall of the Chuandeng Lou in Fo Guang Shan, at the age of 97²⁶.
• Fa Gu Shan (Dharma Drum Mountain) (1989, Jinshan): Founded by Master Sheng Yen. In 1990, he unveiled "Elevate the quality of people, build a pure land in the human world"; in 1992, he proposed the concept of "Spiritual Environmental Protection"[^38]: extending environmental protection from the material level to the spiritual level, one of Taiwan's important post-war cultural vocabularies.
• Zhong Tai Chan Monastery (Puli): Venerable Master Wei Jue founded Lingquan Monastery on the basis of Wei Jue Chan Monastery in 1987²⁷. Zhong Tai Chan Monastery was officially completed on September 1, 2001: "3 years of planning starting from 1992, 7 years of construction"[^40]: thirty years later than the other three great mountains. This generational gap also shaped its Chan meditation philosophy, which is very different from the first three. Venerable Master Wei Jue passed away on April 8, 2016, at the age of 90.

The Four Great Mountains each have different church-state relations strategies: Tzu Chi "does not talk politics, only does charity"; the Presbyterian Church "actively participates in democratic transition"; Fo Guang Shan "participates moderately, maintaining dialogue with both sides of the strait." Even among religious groups, the spectrum can be stretched very wide.

Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell's Medical Kit: 160 Years of Christianity in Taiwan

On May 28, 1865, Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell of the Scottish Presbyterian Mission landed in Doggie (now Kaohsiung) in southern Taiwan, and on June 16, he began preaching and practicing medicine at Kanhsi Street outside the West Gate of the Taiwan Prefecture²⁸. This is the starting point of Christian Protestantism in Taiwan.

Seven years later, on March 7, 1872, George Leslie Mackay of the Canadian Presbyterian Mission landed in Tamsui, opening up northern Taiwan missionary work²⁹. Mackay's Oxford College (1882), established in Tamsui, is one of the prototypes of modern education in Taiwan. Mackay Hospital, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (early cooperation), Chang Jung High School, Tamsui Foreign Languages College, and真理 University: these institutions, still operating today, are all built on the foundation laid by the Presbyterian Church in the late 19th century.

The unique thing about the Presbyterian Church compared to other religions is: it directly intervenes in politics. On August 16, 1977, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan issued the "Declaration on Human Rights," publicly calling on the government to "take effective measures to make Taiwan a new and independent country"³⁰. At that time, Taiwan was still under martial law; publicly advocating independence carried the risk of imprisonment. The Presbyterian Church became one of the few local civic groups able to speak publicly before the lifting of martial law.

Catholicism also has its own traces: Fu Jen Catholic University, Mackay Hospital (early cooperation), and the Missionaries of Our Lady of Bethlehem have long been committed to serving indigenous communities in Taitung³¹. These institutions are not as large in scale as the Four Great Buddhist Mountains, but their contributions to remote area healthcare, education, and social welfare are profound.

📝 Curator's Note: Christianity in Taiwan for 160 years has never been a majority (population proportion about 5-6%), but its influence far exceeds the number of believers. It brought in modern education, modern healthcare, women's education, the writing of indigenous languages, the Vernacular Bible movement, and human rights discourse—these things are not matters of grand halls, but the infrastructure of the entire society. A religion's influence is not in how many people worship its deities, but in how many things it did that society originally did not have.

Xingtian Temple Removes Incense Burners: When Piety Meets PM2.5

On August 26, 2014, at 3 AM, Xingtian Temple sent workers to remove two large incense burners and fifteen offering tables in front of the main hall³². Taiwan's first major temple with six million annual visitors, enshrining Guan Sheng Dijun, announced an incense ban. This was the largest-scale reform of temples in half a century³³.

The background of the decision: Statistics from the Environmental Protection Administration show that 90,000 to 220,000 tons (some sources say 240,000 metric tons) of joss paper are burned annually; PM2.5 around temples can reach 45 micrograms per cubic meter, three times the national standard³⁴. Dharma Drum Mountain was even more radical: using a large screen to play videos of joss paper burning to replace physical burning³⁵.

But the reaction was polarized³⁶. Traditionalists believe "without incense, there is no efficacy," "how can the deity know you came to worship if they cannot smell the incense." Young believers and environmentalists feel "finally someone changed." The numbers a year later are interesting: Xingtian Temple's number of worshippers did not decrease, but increased—more families bringing children, more non-smoking young people, more middle-aged and elderly people with allergies.

This event revealed a fundamental problem: the form and content of religious rituals can be separated. Incense is not the religion itself; it is the physical manifestation of the religion. The manifestation can change; the deity remains. Once everyone accepts this, there is room for temple reform.

Fortune Sticks, Temple Management Committees, and a Practice of Democracy on an Island

Finally, let's talk about two things that are less noticed.

The first is fortune sticks (qian). The fortune stick system in Taiwanese temples is actually one of the world's earliest "free psychological counseling systems." A young person heartbroken, a middle-aged person unemployed, an elderly person sick, can walk into a temple, shake the stick cylinder, draw a four-line poem, and chat with a fortune-interpreting volunteer. The fortune stick itself may be ambiguous, but the process of interpretation is listening, being listened to, and being advised. No registration fee, no appointment needed³⁷.

The second is the Temple Management Committee. The management committee system of Taiwanese temples—electing a chairman, vice-chairman, and general secretary by one-person-one-vote—is actually a grassroots democratic practice existing in Taiwan since the Qing Dynasty³⁸. Earlier than parliaments, earlier than political parties, earlier than household registration systems. A small temple may manage ten million in incense money, a piece of land, and a group of believers; all of this must operate through democratic mechanisms. Of course, this also means temple politics can be very dark—factional struggles, vote buying, and ties to local politics³⁹. But it at least leaves one fact: Taiwanese people did not start voting only in 1996; they learned this at the small temple at the corner of the street hundreds of years ago.

From Fear to Freedom

Returning to the opening contrast: the island with the highest density of temples in the world and ranked second in Asia for religious freedom, the historical origins of its two largest faiths are both tied to plague and death.

In the 2025 Freedom House Global Freedom Report, Taiwan ranked second in Asia (only behind Japan) with a score of 94⁴⁰. This ranking includes multiple dimensions such as religious freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of association. Contrasting with three hundred years ago—those military immigrants who tied deity statues to boats and gambled their lives crossing the sea—they probably could not imagine their descendants living on such an island: where you can freely believe in any religion, freely believe in no religion, worship all three religions, or worship none.

The Baoan Temple repaired by Liao Wu-chih now holds the Baosheng Cultural Festival annually, combining art exhibitions, concerts, and academic lectures⁴¹. A temple built two hundred years ago by Tong'an immigrants bringing the faith of Doctor Bao has today become one of Taipei's cultural centers. The deity statues are still there, but next to them are also jazz bands.

This island's history of faith, starting from the moment 17th-century military immigrants stepped off their boats, has walked all the way to the incense-free temples of 2025, spiritual environmental protection, Humanistic Buddhism, and the second place in Freedom House. There has been no break in between; every era has added new things on the original foundation. King Ye changed from a plague god to a peace god, Mazu from a sea goddess to an all-powerful goddess, Earth God from a field god to a commercial god. Gods do not die; they change jobs.

The fear of crossing the sea in the 17th century—the fear of the Black Water Gap, the fear of plague, the fear of clan feuds, the fear of natural disasters—has not truly disappeared. They have been transformed into 15,000 temples, a million people徒步 for nine days in pilgrimage, volunteers of the Four Great Mountains spreading across the world, the Presbyterian Church's insistence on speaking out in human rights declarations, and I-Kuan Tao's legalization after thirty-four years underground.

Fear has never disappeared; it has just grown the shape of faith.

And this faith ultimately made the island free.

Further Reading

• Overseas Taiwanese and Diaspora Communities — How Mazu, King Ye, and Earth Gods went overseas again with immigrants to the whole world
• Hakka Culture and Language — The faith of the Righteous Martyrs (Yimin Ye) is the most unique religious practice of the Hakka community in Taiwan
• Social Movements in Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial Period — How the colonial government controlled religion, and how it was countered by religion
• The February 28 Incident — The role of the post-war religious sector (especially the Presbyterian Church) in political transition
• Chiang Wei-shui — The physician-revolutionary, and dialogues with contemporary religious leaders
• Taiwanese Sensibility: Do We Need Koreans to Like First Before We Dare to Say Our Old Houses Are Beautiful? — One of the places where everyday aesthetics like terrazzo and iron window grilles are most preserved is temples

References