Religion in Taiwan: Performance troupes (GIF)
In Taiwan, on the anniversary of a temple’s founding or to celebrate the primary deity’s birthday, temples put on extravagant parades known as ‘tours of the borders’ where their deities, temporarily removed from their altars, are carried in sedan chairs to inspect and bestow blessings upon families and businesses within the borders of a temple’s spiritual domain.
They are noisy events, and as a prelude to the arrival of the gods, a variety of performance troupes lead the procession, each with a function, a symbolism or simply as entertainments for the bystanders and for the deities. Religion in Taiwan is loud, colorful and festive, and in these GIFs, a selection of performance troupes are depicted in hues of black and white to backdrops of superimposed sacred fire performing on the streets of Taiwan.
This is General Xie, an Underworld policeman who protects humans from wandering spirits. As a part of the performance troupe, the Eight Infernal Generals (Ba Jia Jiang), General Xie performs martial arts moves in a temple parade to ward off malevolent spirits before the temple deities arrive on their annual 'tour of their borders'.
