Animal rights advocates yesterday rallied outside the Chingshui Zushi Temple (清水祖師廟) in Sansia District (三峽), New Taipei City (新北市), urging an end to “divine pig” contests.
Chanting “overweight pigs do not bring fortune” while parading a model of a cartoon pig on the bridge leading to the temple, the advocates urged passers-by to join their campaign to halt the practice, the last such contest in the Taipei metropolitan area.
“I would like to make it clear that we are not against the tradition of having pigs as offering to deities and immortals, but if you choose to do this, please buy pigs that are raised in a healthy way and slaughtered humanely,” Environmental and Animal Society Taiwan (EAST) director Chen Yu-min (陳玉敏) told the crowd.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“Pigs normally grow to over 100 jin [60kg], but the divine pigs are force-fed and grow to about 1,000 jin or more, then have their throats cut while they are conscious. This is unhealthy, cruel and inhumane,” Chen said.
She said that all deities are merciful and would not appreciate offerings that cause suffering in living creatures.
“Don’t forget that Chingshui Zushi was a learned and much respected Buddhist master and a vegetarian,” Chen said.
According to tradition, the heavier the pig that a devotee presents as an offering, the more sincere the devotee, though both Buddhist and Taoist teachings urge vegetarian offerings at religious rituals.
While contests on the weight of divine pigs were once popular across the country, only a few temples still hold such events.
In Sansia, seven family clans take turns each year to be in charge of raising such pigs, receiving certificates and medals according to the weight of the animals.
According to EAST, there are 126 Chingshui Zushi temples across the country, but the Sansia temple is the only one still holding annual divine pig contests.
Most people at the event reacted positively to the call.
“Killing is discouraged in Taoism, so why kill pigs for deities? Pigs are also living creatures,” a local resident surnamed Wu (吳) said.
A man surnamed Chang (張), who traveled to Sansia with his family to attend the festivities, said that he did not see the point in having overweight pigs as offerings.
Another man, surnamed Huang (黃), from Fusing Township (復興), Taoyuan County, said that there are alternatives to offering pigs.
“A few years ago, when I had to prepare an offering for deities at a temple in my hometown, I made a ‘divine pig’ with bags of rice, with each bag weighing 20kg,” Huang said. “After the ritual, I gave the rice to poor families. I think this is a better idea.”
Responding to the activists, the temple’s executive director Liu Chin-ta (劉金達) said that it may consider ending the divine pig contest in 2017.
“Seven clans take turns to raise divine pigs, so each cycle lasts seven years. The current cycle started in 2010, and since we cannot just stop it, we have to wait until at least 2017 to put an end to the practice,” Liu said. “Of course, it’s up to the temple’s board of directors to make the final decision on the matter.”
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would