Following a public outcry and condemnations by activists this week, officials at a temple in Greater Tainan yesterday made a public apology for the temple’s ritual of stuffing live birds into sealed statues of deities.
The ritual took place at Kaisianjhen Temple (開仙真宮) in Greater Tainan’s Sigang District (西港), in effect making the birds sacrificial offerings, for the consecration and empowerment of statues of deity the Baosheng Emperor (保生大帝), the god of medicine.
Cheng Teng-feng (鄭登峰), head of Kaisianjhen Temple’s management committee, said that following the public outcry, the committee convened a meeting on Tuesday night and decided to make a public apology.
Photo courtesy of Kaisianjhen Temple, Greater Tainan
The practice came to light after someone posted a video online showing the ceremony.
In the video a temple official grabs a white Java sparrow from a bird cage and stuffs it into a round hole in the back of a wooden statue of the Baosheng Emperor. The opening is then sealed up and the bird left inside to die.
“This ritual has been practiced for several centuries. It came from a divine mandate by the gods. It is not a deliberate act to abuse animals,” Cheng said. “We will respect the adjudication by the Greater Tainan Animal Health Inspection and Protection Office.”
In the future we shall seek the guidance of deities and will respect the views of the public. Times have changed and we shall endeavor to make appropriate adjustments,” he said.
Greater Tainan Animal Health Inspection and Protection Office deputy director Wu Ming-pin (吳名彬) said the office would collaborate with other agencies and talk to all local temples to end the practice of stuffing live animals inside statues, leaving the creatures to die by suffocation or starvation.
Wu added that his office is now investigating whether the temple’s action violated Article 6 of the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), which prohibits the maltreatment and abuse of animals.
When the video was posted on the Web, many netizens were in uproar, with some calling it a cruel, inhumane practice that should be stopped and calling for the lives of the unfortunate birds to be saved.
Wild Bird Society of Tainan secretary-general Kuo Tung-hui (郭東輝) said stuffing birds inside statues of deities by temples, for “illlumination” and to imbue “magical power,” is nothing but superstition.
Hsieh Chu-yi (謝主義), a master carver of statues of deities in Greater Tainan, said stuffing animals inside as “treasures” to imbue divine power had long been practiced at some temples as part of traditional worship.
Hsieh said when the statues of deities are encased in gold foil, certain deities will instruct a spirit-possessed medium (乩童) to place “treasures” inside them. Most of the time, the “treasures” are hornets, but other creatures, such as snakes and centipedes, are also used as they represent the animal embodiment of certain deities.
“As well as the Java sparrow, some temples use the yellow warbler and the crested minah bird for this purpose,” Hsieh said.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS