【Tainan, Taiwan】Madou Daitian Temple 麻豆代天府

Please refer to the audio introduction with this link.

Introduction

Madou Daitian Temple is primarily dedicated to the worship of the Wangyeh 王爺 or Five Royal Lords 五府千歲.

This Taoist folk religion is practiced only here in Taiwan and in China’s Fujian Province.

Madou Daitian Temple is one of the oldest, largest, and best known Wang Yeh temples.

On our tour, we will learn about the history of the temple, as well as the story of the Five Royal Lords and how they came to be here.

We will also introduce some of the many other gods enshrined in this enormous temple.

Finally, we will head to the back garden to check out the temple’s animatronic tour of Taoist heaven and hell.

To begin, let’s step inside and look around while we delve into Madou Daitian Temple’s tumultuous history.

Please be sure to enter through the rightward of the temple’s three main doors.

This is the dragon door and is always the entrance in a Taoist temple.

Temple History

The story of the Madou Daitian Temple can be divided into four parts, each involving a momentous event that changed the temple’s history.

Part 1: Long, long ago

The exact origins of Madou Daitian temple are lost to time; old Dutch maps of the area make it clear that there was a shrine of some sort on this site during the early 1600s.

At the time, this was the shoreline of the Bay of Tainan.

Today, the bay has completely silted in, but if you had looked out of the gates 300 years ago, you would have seen a busy harbor with ships coming and going every which way.

Sometime during the 1650s, a ‘king boat’ carrying three Wang Yeh god effigies washed ashore at the harbor.

Afterward, the town of Madou prospered, and so in 1662, a formal temple was built to enshrine the three Royal Lords who had brought the town so much good fortune.

Then, less than 100 years after its founding, an event occurred that led to the downfall of the temple in a most unexpected way. This leads us to…

Part 2: Too much of a good thing.

In 1735, a new emperor came to power in China.

Wanting to know more about Taiwan, he sent an official geographer out to explore the island.

Now, in imperial China, a geographer studied the land as much for its Fengshui properties as for any other reason.

This particular geographer sent a report back to the emperor that the harbor in front of the temple was the ultimate Fengshui hotspot — it was the wide-open mouth of a great dragon whose body undulated up the river that emptied into the port.

Which sounds great…but the geographer also reported that at a nearby lake, he had seen a tree covered in red flowers that looked like the red silk parasol always carried to shelter a leader.

This could only mean one thing. Madou was to be the birthplace of an emperor.

It was disastrous news, and the emperor took decisive action to end this potential threat to imperial power. ‘Action’ meant destroying the local Fengshui 風水.

Under the guise of building a new bridge where the river met the harbor — the dragon’s throat — the emperor sent his geomancer with a crew of a hundred men who proceeded to dump enormous stones, mill wheels from sugar cane presses, horse carcasses, nails, and other unlucky objects into the harbor.

Finally, the geomancer stabbed his sword into the river right at the dragon’s throat, and it is said that blood flowed from the spot.

It would appear that the emperor succeeded in his plan to destroy the Fengshui of Madou. The port became unusable, and the area went into decline.

Part 3: Natural disaster

Then in 1823, disaster struck again.
A week of torrential rains caused such flooding that the entire landscape of Tainan was altered. The temple flooded and was severely damaged.

In the end, it was just too much, and the temple was abandoned.

The gods were set adrift in a king boat to carry away the bad luck, and in 1857, the temple was rebuilt on higher ground.

Part 4: An order to rebuild

Another century passed, and then in 1956, yet another great change occurred in the temple’s fortunes.

That year, a spirit medium received instructions from the Wang Yeh deities that they wanted the temple moved back to its original site, which was now high and dry, and miles from the sea.

Of course, before the new building could be built, all trace of bad fengshui must be got rid of.

All of the objects dumped here so long ago had to be removed.

The site was excavated, and sure enough, workers found the bones of horses and hundreds of nails as well as 36 mill wheels and 72 large stones.

You can still see some of them behind the temple today.

In addition to these objects, the workers found one other item — the large, well-preserved trunk of a camphor tree.

A local sculptor and temple artisan subsequently had a dream in which the gods directed him to carve this trunk into new effigies of five Wang Yeh: the Royal Lords Li, Chih, Wu, Zhu, and Fan.

These are the small god effigies that you can see on the front of the altar today.

As far as local residents are concerned, the rebuilding project worked.

Since the new temple was built, life has looked up in the district, and Madou has prospered once again.

And now, our history complete, let’s head to the central altar where the 5 Wangyeh reside in their splendid shrine, while we learn about these gods and listen to their story.

Wangyeh history and worship

The Wang Ye, or Five Royal Lords, are among the most important deities in Taiwan’s Taoist pantheon.

Wang Yeh worship is believed to have sprung from the story of an actual person, a scholar, or perhaps several scholars, from the Tang Dynasty period who committed suicide in a well in a desperate effort to prevent the local people from drinking the well water, which was contaminated and was a source of pestilence and disease.

Over time, people began to pray to these men who had sacrificed themselves for the public good, and they were deified as the Wang Yeh, or Royal Lords.

The Wang Yeh are emissaries from heaven who patrol the world of the living on behalf of the Divine Realm.

They act as ghost hunters, dispel illness, and are known as bringers of good fortune.

The five Wang Yeh at Madou Daitian Temple have authority over different aspects of earthly life, and prayers should be offered to the proper Lord.

Lord Li presides at the center of the group. He is the god of justice and righteousness, responsible for matters of national defense and crime-fighting.

To his right is Lord Chih, the god of strategy. He, too, should be consulted in matters of national defense, as well as for strategies to fight pestilence and disease.

To the left of Lord Li is Lord Wu, the god of courage and bravery. Lord Wu governs matters involving Fengshui, a central aspect of Taoist cosmology.

On the extreme right is Lord Zhu, the god of law and order. Lord Zhu hands out punishments and penalties and sees that justice is carried out.

Lord Fan, the god of medicine, is at the very left.

Those who are stricken with illnesses that cannot be cured by living doctors seek his spiritual aid.

In times past, it was possible to use a special set of fortune sticks to procure a prescription from the god, which could then be filled at a local pharmacy, but with modernization comes change, and that practice has been discontinued for several years now.

King boats

Earlier in this narrative, we mentioned that the first Wangyeh effigies at Madou Daitian temple arrived on these shores in a king boat. You may have wondered just what that is.

King boats play a huge role in Wang Yeh worship in Taiwan.

They were first used in Fujian Province, the province of China just across the Taiwan Strait. When disease struck, it was a tradition among the people there to pray to the Wang Yeh to save their community and carry away the evil that was causing the trouble.

The effigies of the gods were then placed on a seaworthy boat and set adrift, to take the evil far out to sea.

Far from shore, the gods would dispose of the evil.

Since the currents in the Strait tend to run from Fujian to Taiwan, the boats would eventually come ashore here.

The safe arrival in Taiwan of a boat steered by gods was seen a divine blessing.

This is how the first three Wang Yeh effigies found their way into this temple, back when it was right by the harbor.

Other gods and temple details

Now that we have introduced the five Royal Lords, let’s talk about some of the other gods that you will also find in the temple.

First, let’s head to the right of the main shrine and a little toward the back, where you will find an entire room dedicated to the 60 Taisui, or Star Gods who preside over each year of the 60-year Chinese calendar cycle.

On the high altar is the eight-armed Mother of the North Dipper, also known as the Mother of Heaven.

The 60 Taisui assist the Emperor of Heaven in controlling the mortal world, and each of these Star Gods has his own attributes that define his particular year.

The present year’s star god is seated on the right of the Mother of the North Dipper, and the god of the next year is on her left.

Every year, all of the Star Gods are rotated in one place.

The god from the year you were born will be rotated back into the seat of honor during the year you turn 60.

Now, let’s head to the rear hall, which is across from the wishing well behind the main hall.

As in many temples in Taiwan, the rear hall of Madou Daitian temple is dedicated to Guanyin, the goddess of mercy.

The red-faced god to the left of Guanyin is Guanyu, one of the most famous generals in Chinese history.

Guanyu is worshipped in both Taoist and Buddhist Shrines.

Here, he goes by his Buddhist title, Jialan Zhunze. Students preparing to take their college entrance exams often bring their test registrations with their registration number to be blessed by this brilliant general.

To the right of Guanyin is Caisheng, the god of wealth.

The walls on either side are lined with the 18 Arhats, the original followers of Gautama Buddha, who have already achieved Nirvana.

Together, they are charged with protecting the Buddhist faith.

Now, check out the back right-hand section of the temple.

Here, you will find Dongyue Dadi. This underworld god is a conduit for communication with the dead.

Relatives of the dead can pray to the god, who will help them communicate with the deceased family member.

Here you will also find the shrine of Zhusheng NiangNiang, the goddess of fertility and childbirth.

She aids women during pregnancy and keeps babies healthy.

Women who have given birth to healthy children often bring a pair of baby shoes here as an offering of thanks.

On the other side of the temple is the City God, protector of cities and judge of the dead, as well as Fude Zhengsheng, the god of land and wealth.

In the very back left-hand corner is a room that looks almost like a storage room for god effigies. In a way, it is.

People who can no longer keep their god effigy on their home altars may bring them here. The temple will continue to light incense and pay respects to the god so that it is not neglected.

The Guanyin worship hall and other buildings

When you entered the temple, you may have noticed a large, beehive-shaped building in front painted with images of bodhisattvas on a blue background.

This is the Guanyin worship hall, completed in 1990.

If you return there, you will find a large effigy of the Guanyin sitting in repose in the 32-meter tall worship hall, lit by a halo of light that filters down from above.

The 108-layer blessing lamps on either side are said to be the tallest blessing lamps in the world.

One highly unique feature of this hall is the door gods, who are sculpted in relief on the solid camphorwood doors rather than simply being painted.

The two large buildings on either side of the main temple are accommodations that hold up to 1500 visitors a night.

On weekends, the temple is generally full of visitors.
Many come from other Wang Yeh temples on the island which claim Madou Daitian Temple to be their ancestral temple.

Heaven and Hell

…But another reason people come here is that immense dragon whose head you see poking up behind the temple building — and it may just be the biggest attraction of all.

So let’s head to the back right corner of the temple, where we will introduce you to the dragons in the garden and to the 28 levels of Taoist Heaven and Hell that you will find in the bellies of these beasts.

At the back right corner of the temple is a gate guarded by a blue demon with shining red eyes.

This is the entrance to Taoist hell, and for the price of a 40 NT ticket, you can take a trip through what is best described as a sort of anti-Disneyland where the animatronic displays scare the pants off of little children.

Believe us when we tell you that this is worth seeing.

So without further ado, let us enter Hell, which thankfully is air-conditioned, and we will tell you of its terrors.

In Taoist belief, the dead go to the underworld to be judged, and then either enter Paradise or are punished for their sins before being reborn.

Hell is composed of ten great halls or courts, each governed by a different lord.

These are further divided into eighteen chambers or levels of Hell, which mete out punishment for different crimes.

Let’s start from the first level: The Eighteen Levels of Hell 十八層地獄

The First Level of Hell: This is the Hall of Judgement, governed by Lord Qinguang, who judges all souls. The virtuous cross over into paradise, while the wicked are sent to the appropriate level to be punished for their crimes.

The length of the sentence depends on the severity of the crime and the penitence of the sinner.

If a punishment ‘kills’ a sinner, their body is made whole again and the punishment repeats itself over and over until the sentence is complete and the sinner repents.

The Second Level of Hell: Here, corrupt officials who abuse their power and bring harm to the common people are guillotined.

The Third Level of Hell: Rabble rousers, troublemakers, and bullies are thrown into a mill to be crushed and pulverized by the grindstone.

The Fourth Level of Hell: Rapists and adulterers are tied face-first to a red-hot copper pillar and seared alive.

The Fifth Level of Hell: Those who bear false witness and further themselves at the expense of others have their eyes gouged out.

The Sixth Level of Hell: Drug dealers, addicts, and manufacturers of fake medicines and liquors are boiled in a cauldron of oil.

The Seventh Level of Hell: Those who use illegal means to defraud women and children, or bring economic ruin on families through trickery and deceit have their hearts cut out.

The Eighth Level of Hell: Profiteers who cheat or use improper means to profit at the expense of others are torn apart by dogs and bitten by snakes.

The Ninth Level of Hell: Ne’er-do-wells and unfilial sons and daughters are hung upsides down from hooks like meat on a scale.

The Tenth Level of Hell: Rapists and murderers are drawn and quartered.

The Eleventh Level of Hell: Thieves, kidnappers, and those who commit fraud are steamrolled under a grindstone.

The Twelfth Level of Hell: Robbers, murderers, and looters are dismembered.

The Thirteenth Level of Hell: Lazy, disobedient, or unfilial daughters-in-law are punished by having to hold heavy boulders over their heads until they weaken and are crushed.

The Fourteenth Level of Hell: Pimps and human traffickers who ruin women and destroy families have their faces flayed.

The Fifteenth Level of Hell: Those who swindle others and ruin them financially, thereby inducing them to commit suicide, are disemboweled.

The Sixteenth Level of Hell: Those who gamble, commit fraud, or sell counterfeit goods are forced to commit suicide by a knife.

The Seventeenth Level of Hell: Rumor-mongers, gossips, and those who induce the deaths of others through false insinuations have their tongues pulled out.

The Eighteenth Level Hell: The final level.

After their punishment has been completed, the souls drink the Elixir of Forgetfulness and are released for reincarnation, perhaps as an animal, perhaps as a human doomed to suffer in expiation of past sins.

Once you have left hell, head into the mouth of the lower dragon where you will ascend through the 10 levels of paradise.

They are not as exciting as Hell, but are quite a bit nicer, with feasting and perpetual mahjong games.

Eventually, you will emerge from the mouth of the dragon who rears his head high above the temple grounds.

And here, we will end our tour.

We hope you have enjoyed your time at Madou Daitian Temple.