In Yunlin County, Taiwan, the Zhenxi temple performs a special ceremony every year, blessing the local town and people, and taking the local deity for a swim.
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A procession carries the richly decorated deity’s palenquinn over the sand dune. Then the temple staff begin a ceremony with the small wooden sedan chair, flipping it back and forth before rushing it headlong into the sea. The chair is dunked several times before being walked ashore, where the ceremony is repeated several more times.
This special Dragon Boat custom is over 100 years old, and performed exclusively at the ZhenXi Temple of Mailiao Town, in Yunlin County. The ritual began when the thousand-year-old statue of the temple’s main god traveled to Taiwan, originally from Fujian, and worshippers couldn't return it to its ancestral home on pilgrimage. Thus, the Sanjinshui, or “three dip water” ceremony, was born.
According to temple consultant Lin Yuan-zhong, the water of the sea represents the incense smoke, brought back to protect the village and all those living in it.
Like many places around Taiwan, Mailiao was heavily dependent on the sea in the past. By performing the ritual at sea, they could pray to the gods to protect the fishermen who traveled out into the ocean. Now, every Dragon Boat festival, the dedicated practitioners first perform the incense ceremony before the Sanjinshui, then parade around the city before returning to the temple, fully completing the ceremony.
Amanda Stephens, for Rti News