Hi guys, I am Hsuan-hui, Jacqueline.
I am now here at Anding District.
You know, there are three treasures of Anding District,
the sesame, the asparagus,and Chinese soapberry.
And also,
there is the most important festival here in Anding District,
which is the King Boat Burning Festival.
If you want to learn more,
come with me and I will show you more.
Let’s go!
Tainan Temple Festivals Year, or Siangke Year (incense questing),
is once every three years.
It is a very important folk activity of Tainan.
The “siang (incense)” in siangke (incense questing),
is guasiang, or to worship and request incense
from deities in founding temples.
“Ke” refers to the Taoism rituals.
Usually incense quests happen once every 3,
4, or 12 years.
The activity spans from April till June.
First up is Anding,
with the Nanying Wang Yeh Boat (King Boat) Festival
and Changxing Temple’s sending off gods of plague.
We are now here at Zhenghu Temple,
which is famous for its King Boat Festival.
Now, let’s go and check it out.
This is the head of the temple, Mr. Chen.
Hello, Mr. Chen
Hello, dear audience.
Could you please give us a tour here around the temple?
OK, I will show you around.
And what about the history of the King Boat Festival?
Could you please tell me about it?
The King Boat Festival has been held from the Qing Dynasty.
Chamuying by then is Liouying now.
The festival in Liouying is the King Boat Festival.
The king boats in the early ages were not burnt
but let with the flow.
At that time the King Boat drifted to Sucuo at the Zengwun River.
Believers took the boat and asked for divine interpretation,
which turned out the deities wanted to settle down at this location.
As a result, the followers brought it back for worship.
The first kejiao (a Taoism offering ritual) was held in 1871.
From then on , the tradition of hosting
an incense quest once every 3 years continued till today.
I just saw the Yuanmenguan out there,
so what is Yuanmenguan?
Yuanmenguan means the officer goes on
an inspection tour on behalf of Wang Yeh.
The Yuanmenguan (Commanding Officer) is selected
by casting jiaobei (moon blocks),
who is the delegate of Wang Yeh (the royal lord).
There are a lot of King Boat Festivals in Taiwan,
but what differentiates Sucuo from the ordinary ones is that
we hold it once every three years
Sucuo First Daitian Temple’s King Boat Festival
was listed in 2009 as a city-recognized folk activity.
It was also selected as one of the top 100 Taiwan religious events.
In 1958, the god issued an edict
to make a king boat from Taiwan Cypress.
This king boat can be sailed over land.
This King Boat went as far north to Taipei,
and as far south to Pingtung.
During the inspection tours,
the King Boat can be seen being sailed over land.
In every important Tainan folklore,
there are inspection tours.
It is an important event for interaction between temples,
and you can also see many parades (zhentou) participating in events.
The objects worshiped in the King Boat Festival
are a little different than usual.
When the king boat goes on an inspection tour,
just like to go for a battle,
which needs provender,
so believers need to transport objects.
The objects being transported include rice, oil,
salt, beans, sugar, vinegar, kindling,
and joss paper.
“Heavenly money” and “heavenly treasuries”
are also put into the boat.
The King Boat Festival isn’t the only famous festival in Anding.
Changxing Temple’s
sending off of the gods of plague(festival Wen Wang Ji) is also renowned.
We are now here at the Chang Xing Temple.
Here they call this festival “Wen Wang Ji”
So what’s so special about “Wen Wang Ji”?
Let’s go check it out.
The whole village participates
the event during the sending off of the gods of plague.
A festive atmosphere can be seen all around the village.
What is so special about the sending off of the gods of plague?
Let’s go take a look!
This is the head of the Changxing Temple.
He is Mr. Su.
Hello, Mr. Su.
Hello, Hsuan-hui and dear audience.
I just found out that Wen Wang Ji is very famous around here,
so what is Wen Wang Ji?
What is the background history？
The history of the Wen Wang Ji starts from 1679.
King’s Boats in the early days used to be released into the water.
In 1679, the King Boat drifted from
Ouwang River to the Taijiang Inner Sea
and landed to the north of Sucuo Village
and was handed off to Changxing Temple.
The first offering ritual to the gods of plague was held in 1772.
Changxing Temple whorships the Twelve Gods of Plague.
In the early days, plague was a very serious problem.
The 12 Gods of Plague came as everyone’s rescue and dispelled plagues.
Later on, in order to thank the gods for protection,
people would host plague dispelling ceremonies,
which has become the current festival of sending off the gods of plague.
What’s special in Changxing Temple is that
there is no statue of a god inside the main temple.
When the sending off of the gods of plague happens
once every three years,
a paste paper master will be asked to make paper statues of the gods.
After worship, they will be burnt together with the King Boat.
The sending off of the gods of plague follows certain worshiping rituals.
Patrolling officers and the five major officers are
selected by casting jiaobei (moon blocks).
During the sending off of the King Boat,
it is carried by followers to its final location.
Mr. Su, so is Wen Wang Ji only limited to this temple,
or would other templesalso come here and celebrate?
The main part of the Wen Wang Ji is definitely the Changxing Temple.
Changxing Temple and other temples,
which we have good relationship with
are around Shangbazhuang(now as Shanhua District)
and Xiajiuzhuang(now as Anding District) in the past.
So far,
there are about 50 temples participating in the inspection tours.
The inspection tours span about 5 kilometers.
It is considered to be a very big troupe.
According to the rules of the Wen Wang Ji,
we should have a king boat first.
The sending off of the gods of plague also requires
the preparation of lanterns, palaces,
and yamen(government offices).
The event follows traditional Taoism worshipping rituals.
The grand finale of the King Boat Festival
is the burning of the boat.
Although the trip to send off the King Boat is a short one,
but it is very tiring as it is carried by man-power.
You can feel the passion of the believers.
Wow! It must be very breathtaking
and touching to see that in person.
According to the customs，
the village which the mast of King Boat
falls towards will have good harvests.
Isn’t this King Boat Festival culture super amazing?
So if you are interested in this culture,
don’t miss out Anding District.
There are also a lot of delicious traditional snacks
near Changxing Temple.
There are a lot of traditional Taiwanese snacks,
like the hemp flower and the peanut candy.
So, if you want to know how does it taste.
Let me go grab a bite and I will tell you.
Hi, every one. This is my friend, Jun-teng.
Hi, every one.
Hsuan-hui, have you ever tried a fried dough twists made by sour dough?
Try some fried dough twists made by us.
It’s super delicious!
So why is it so crispy and so special?
Our fried dough twists are naturally fermented.
The dough requires ten hours of fermentation every day.
Fermentation is the key to the delicious taste.
The fried dough twists are
kneaded by hand to make them more crispy.
There is a large variety of traditional snacks here.
And as for this one, it’s name is called Mua Lao.
It’s like when you eat it,
you will have a longer live and a well-being.
Now, let me try this one.
This peanut taste is so great,
and it’s really soft.
If you come when they are fresh out of the pot,
you will smell a very fragrant smell.
They were just finished by then,
and I can’t wait to taste.
I can smell it from here.
So this is the peanut candy.
It’s also super tasty,
and so with these similar ingredients,
they can make so many different kinds of snacks.
Isn’t it so special?
So next time when you come to Anding District,
don’t forget to give it a try.
One of the three treasures of Anding is the asparagus.
The harvest season for asparagus is from April until October.
It’s now the time to harvest the asparagus,
so now I am going to cut it down.
So,what is the best time to cut the asparagus down?
When it is eight or nine inches long,it is done and grown.
So now we can cut it down like this.
So if you want to cut the asparagus,
we should cut it from the ground like this.
So you might wonder which one is better.
It’s definitely this one.
This one with the better shape on the top
will be the preference of the farmers.
So next time if you go to market,
you can choose the asparagus like this one .
This asparagus field
looks so beautiful,
but picking asparagus is a very tiring work.
You see, these are all my efforts today.
I just learned how to cut them down today.
And you know, it needs so much hard work.
You have to bend down and kneel down on your knees.
So next time, if you get the chance to taste the asparagus,
please keep in mind that
all the hard work made from the farmers are not easy.
When you go to a traditional market in Taiwan,
you can usually see some kinds of traditional snacks,
like Ang Dao Gui or Jiu Ceng Gui.
They are like sweet rice cakes made of every flavor.
And you know, they are from Anding District.
So if you want to learn more about how they are made,
let’s go take a look.
The traditional snacks that starts been solded at 2 in the afternoon
must be prepared from early in the morning.
It takes about 5 to 6 hours before
they are ready to be taken out of the pot.
Such a cheap snack that is soldfor only a couple of coins
is actually very labor intensive.
The sweet rice cakes behind me, are now in their last procedure.
Later, they will send them to the market, and sell them.
After cooling down, the nine-layer cake is cut into squares.
The next step is to prepare them for the market.
Hsuan-hui, this is our best-selling dish- Jui Cen Gui.
Here, try some.
You see, from the first layer to the seventh layer,
they have all different kinds of sweetness.
And so the first one is not so sweet,
but the last one is super sweet.
It’s so special.
You may find some snacks in a traditional Taiwanese market.
But, you may also find them in the countryside
with these random stands.
So maybe next time,
if you go around the countryside,
you may also grab a bite of these traditional snacks.
You can often see a lot of stands that sell traditional snacks
in front of the temple in Taiwan.
And, I know there is a very famous wheel pie stand over there.
So, I would like to check it out.
Hello, I want one with red bean
and the other one with cheese and corn.
This one, has a flavor with cheese and corn.
I have never tried such a flavor.
And so, if you want to try such a special flavor,
like strawberries, or chocolate or matcha,
or any other kinds of flavors,
don’t miss out this wheel pie.
So, you know, here at Anding District,
you can not only see the Wen Wang Festival,
but also taste special traditional snacks from Taiwan.
So, next time, when you come to Anding,
don’t miss out these special things.