Chapter 16: every tradition · Chinese religion
Chinese folk temple
A Chinese community temple (miao) to a patron god, here Mazu, the Holy Mother in Heaven and goddess of the sea (others honour Guan Di or Beidi), with Guanyin, Guan Di, the earth god and the year's Tai Sui on side altars. It isn't a denomination or a congregation: it's Chinese popular religion, mixing Daoist, Buddhist and ancestral rites, and most who light incense there wouldn't name it as their religion. There's no weekly service in the Christian sense. The doors are open every day, and people come alone or as a family to bow at the great censer and before each altar, ask the god a question with the moon blocks and fortune sticks, buy incense, paper and charms, and burn paper money in the furnace; more come on the 1st and 15th of the lunar month and on Sundays. There's no weekly gathering to hold: the temple's week is its open hours, and its rites are its great days', when volunteers chant the god's scripture before the altar. A few days are enormous: Lunar New Year's Eve, when crowds press in at midnight to plant the first incense, the god's birthday, and the Ghost Festival. Ceremonies follow lunar dates and are held on the nearest Sunday. The money comes per service rather than by pledge: lamps of brightness renewed each New Year ($30), Tai Sui protection ($20), fortune readings, memorial tablets at the Ghost Festival, and the box. The player is the temple's board (an association or the temple's own nonprofit, with a chair); there are no resident clergy. A keeper opens the doors and tends the incense and lamps, volunteers chant and cook, and Daoist priests are hired for rites and funerals, which are mostly held at funeral homes. The temple as written is modelled on Ma-Tsu Temple of U.S.A. in San Francisco, a Taiwanese temple with a division of incense from Beigang. Its variants are a Chinatown association temple, on the top floor of a district or clan association's building, and a Fujianese village temple in a storefront, whose members are villagers from home and whose leaders take turns. Practice varies from temple to temple; much here is unverified and awaits a consultant.
All 80 traditions · its profile in Faiths and traditions, with how to play it and what sets its faith apart; How people feel, what every factor is.
At a glance
| Faith | Chinese religion |
|---|---|
| Its words | temple, temple, main hall; the temple keeper leads the ceremony; the talk; Sunday; the scriptures |
| Worship | image focus, chanted, moderate formality (0.67 of 1); seated on standing |
| Music | organ discouraged; gospel organ discouraged; piano discouraged; choir discouraged; band discouraged; brass discouraged; handbells discouraged; song leader discouraged |
| The room's sound | no strong preference |
| Its year | chinese folk; full observance; fasts none |
| Leans | conservative on moral questions, neutral on economic ones |
| Polity | congregational; leaders come by none; property local |
| Leaders | none leader, unpaid, trained by apprenticeship; marriage any |
| Belonging | low commitment, none discipline, admitted by board |
| Giving | tithing not emphasised; collected by boxes, private; also amulets, lamps, rentals |
| Way of life | alcohol permitted, dress casual, sabbath relaxed |
The week's services
| Day | Time | Service | Led by | People look for it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Every day | 9:00 am to 5:00 pm | Open for incense (incense and prayer, open hours: people come when they like, one by one, 5% as often in a day as to a main service, and stay 20 minutes; visitors who don't belong come too, 0.8 times a week's newcomers each day; it plays quickly) | the laity | expected |
- Leader: none needed: the laity lead every service, so no temple keeper is missed.
Rites
- Tai Sui protection (on request, +0.02 to those there, $20 from the household, asked for 0.6 times a year by a household, 10 minutes): Those whose birth year clashes with the year's Grand Year Star (Tai Sui) register at the temple's counter before the Lantern Festival, a slip with each name and birth date for the year's Tai Sui altar, where it is installed with a short rite and stays until the year ends. Each person gives the merit money the temple posts ($20 at many).
- Fortune reading (on request, +0.01 to those there, $10 from the household, asked for 0.8 times a year by a household, 15 minutes): Someone kneels before the god with a question (a marriage, a move, a business, an illness), shakes the cup of numbered sticks until one falls, confirms it with the moon blocks, and takes the matching poem slip to the interpreter, who reads its classical verse and says what the god's answer means. A small gift for the reading is usual.
- Memorial tablet (on request, +0.015 to those there, $30 from the household, asked for 0.3 times a year by a household, 20 minutes): A family asks the temple to set up a tablet for one who has died, a paper one for a ceremony or a lasting one on the memorial wall; the nuns or monks chant before it, the name is read, and the merit is dedicated to the one who died. The family gives the offering the temple lists.
- Merit rite for the dead (on request, +0.03 to those there, $300 from the household, asked for 0.15 times a year by a household, 120 minutes): A family asks the Daoist priest to perform a gongde (merit) rite for one who has died, on a seventh day after the death, the forty-ninth, or an anniversary: scriptures of repentance chanted before the soul's tablet, a written memorial burned, and offerings and paper money sent after it. The family pays the priest's fee.
- Daoist rites for the dead (on request, +0.03 to those there): A Daoist priest and musicians chant at the funeral, most often at a funeral home: the soul is summoned, its sins confessed and pardoned, and it is led across the bridge out of the underworld, while paper money, a paper house and paper goods are burned for its use. The family kneels through it, and pays the priests and the paper.
Joining
- Joining: a content regular is received as a devotee after about 26 weeks.
- Joining age: 18.
- Kinds of belonging: association members (votes, may hold office); devotees; received by its board.
- What it means: being received is worth +0.1 to the person, +0.05 to family there, and +0.03 to everyone else at the service. It roots them: a rooted household drifts away only 0.6 times as often, and if it does fall away, it has a 25% chance of coming home at each of its great days (at most once a month) for ten years.
Giving, and what goes up
How its people give and what else comes in, as Money explains it for every faith.
- How it's given: the incense money, by boxes, and private envelopes. With no plate passed, members give a tenth less at the boxes than they would into one, and visitors give nothing at the service. Gifts by post or in envelopes come in at the month's start.
- Tithing isn't emphasised: people give 10% less.
- Amulets: each visit to open hours buys amulets (charms, incense, fortune slips), about $4 a visit and half as much again on a feast day, once there's an amulet counter.
- The box at open hours: each visit puts about $2 in it.
- The week's offering: with no main service, a household that belongs gives what it would at one at its first visit of the week.
- Lamps of brightness: households that belong, and regulars, renew theirs each year at the lunar New Year, $30 a household: 85% of the fully engaged member households, half the regulars', fewer the less engaged.
- Rites asked for: households book 4 rites at the prices it lists, from $10 to $300 (below), members half as often again as regulars; the fees go to the Merit money line, in place of a flat stipend.
- Renting space: its congregations are known for it, so tenants pay 15% more.
- Fundraisers: any it allows (below).
- Owed above: nothing: it has no wider body.
The staff and who decides
- Clergy: there's none to come: it has no clergy, and the laity lead its worship.
- Staff it can hire or name (see Staff and volunteers):
- Fortune-slip interpreter (unpaid; from the members; cares for 15 more)
- Daoist priest ($6,000–$20,000; leads worship; performs the rites families book)
- Temple keeper ($15,000–$30,000; slows the building's wear; cares for 20 more)
- Caretaker ($18,000–$30,000; slows the building's wear)
- Temple secretary ($20,000–$35,000; runs the office (+50 to the leader's reach, once))
- Youth director ($20,000–$40,000; up to +0.08 for households with young people)
- Its boards: the board of directors (deciding, over everything).
- Renovations: The board of directors votes.
- New construction: The board of directors votes, consulting the members.
- Who votes: association members, 16 and over.
Life together
What its Community screen offers it, with the dilemmas only its own faith or family meets; see The congregation in its community.
- Ministries of its own: Chinese school, Lion dance troupe, Mahjong and tea, Welcome desk for new arrivals.
- Ministries every tradition can run that it's offered: Blood drive, Food pantry, Health clinic, Preschool, Youth group.
- Fundraisers of its own: Lantern sponsors, Pudu tables, The first incense, The god's birthday banquet.
- Shared fundraisers it may hold: Auction, Bake sale, Bingo night, Car wash, Casino night, Raffle, Rummage sale, Temple festival.
- Tenants it can take: A Masonic lodge, A scout troop, A twelve-step group, Association banquets, Dance classes, Parties and receptions, Polling place and forums, Wedding receptions.
- Auxiliaries: Incense-burner society.
- Outreach: none of its own: it doesn't seek converts, and newcomers come as the neighbourhood and its standing bring them.
- Dilemmas of its own faith (besides those every congregation meets): A landmark, Ask the god, Firecrackers at New Year, Grey heads at the meeting, Smoke from the furnace, The god goes visiting, The god speaks through him.
- Dilemmas its code of life brings: A candidates' forum, A recruiter asks for the hall.
What the building needs
- required Deity altarThe temple's god sits on the main altar, with others beside, before whom incense and offerings are placed.
- expected Lamps of brightnessFamilies keep a lamp lit before the gods for a year, renewed each New Year, for health and good fortune.
- expected Divination tablePeople put their questions to the god with moon blocks and fortune sticks, and take home the poem the god chose.
- expected Incense burnerIncense is offered before the altar at every service.
- expected Joss paper furnacePaper money and offerings for the gods and the dead are burned in the temple's furnace.
- expected Temple censerVisitors plant their incense in the great censer, sending their prayers up with the smoke.
- discouraged Drum kitA band and drum kit do not belong in this tradition's worship.
- discouraged Hammond organA gospel organ doesn't suit this tradition's worship.
- discouraged Upright pianoA piano doesn't suit this tradition's worship.
- discouraged Pipe organAn organ doesn't suit this tradition's worship.
What people here feel
- Architectural style: Colonial brick +0.028; Modern synagogue +0.046; Gurdwara +0.052; Japanese temple +0.056; Islamic +0.05; Shinto shrine +0.05; Chinese temple +0.044; Dravidian temple +0.038; Nagara temple +0.038; Thai temple +0.038; Jain marble +0.032; Gothic +0.026.
- Building fit: up to ±0.15 for everyone, the average fit of the characterful items in its worship rooms (the table below).
- Acoustics: it wants a room between ringing and dry, about 2.2 seconds of reverberation: neither bare stone nor a carpeted low room. Up to ±0.05.
- Seasonal decor: in their seasons, the bon lanterns and new year couplets are worth up to ±0.027 (missing them, the minus); out of season, nothing is called for.
- The talk lands by its topic and the tradition's leaning (below); the temple keeper's preaching adds or costs up to 0.08 more.
- Open hours: a visit counts a quarter as much as a main service: the building and its worship room, and, for visitors, whether anyone welcomed them. People come at the hour that suits them, the retired twice as often, those of working age half as often on a weekday from nine to five; a visiting household that comes only to open hours takes six visits, not three, to settle in.
How each talk lands
The topics its leader can choose from (some are only for one faith or family), and what each is worth.
- Sanctity of Life+0.06
- Faith & Family+0.04
- Faith of Our Fathers+0.04
- Resisting Temptation+0.04
- Gratitude+0.015
- Hope & Comfort+0.015
- Stewardship & Generosity+0.015
- Care for Creation-0.02
- Healing for All-0.02
- Welcome the Stranger-0.02
- Social Justice Call-0.03
- Interfaith Understanding-0.05
- Reading Scripture in Context-0.05
- Swords into Ploughshares-0.05
- Racial Justice & Reconciliation-0.075
- Radical Inclusion-0.075
Every item, for this tradition
Fit runs from −1 (jars) to +1 (just right); the building fit is the average over the characterful items in the worship rooms. An item with no character (a table, a toilet) has no fit. A rule applies wherever the item is.
| Item | Fit | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Seating | ||
| Box pew | +0.333 | |
| Meeting bench | no fit | |
| Oak pew | no fit | |
| Row of chairs | 0 | |
| Liturgical furniture | ||
| Columbarium niches | +0.333 | |
| Deity altar | +0.5 | required The temple's god sits on the main altar, with others beside, before whom incense and offerings are placed. |
| Incense burner | +0.5 | expected Incense is offered before the altar at every service. |
| Lectern | no fit | |
| Mother lamp altar | 0 | |
| Pulpit | no fit | |
| Music | ||
| Drum kit | -1 | discouraged A band and drum kit do not belong in this tradition's worship. |
| Electronic organ | -1 | |
| Grand piano | -1 | |
| Hammond organ | -1 | discouraged A gospel organ doesn't suit this tradition's worship. |
| Handbell table | -1 | |
| Pipe organ | -0.333 | discouraged An organ doesn't suit this tradition's worship. |
| Sound system | -1 | |
| Upright piano | -1 | discouraged A piano doesn't suit this tradition's worship. |
| Decor | ||
| Ancestor tablets | 0 | |
| Banner | 0 | |
| Bon lanterns | 0 | |
| Eternal flame | no fit | |
| Great dome | +0.333 | |
| Guanyin statue | 0 | |
| Lamps of brightness | +0.5 | expected Families keep a lamp lit before the gods for a year, renewed each New Year, for health and good fortune. |
| Memorial plaque | no fit | |
| National flag | 0 | |
| New Year couplets | 0 | |
| Red lanterns | 0 | |
| Small dome | no fit | |
| Stained glass window | +0.333 | |
| Furnishings | ||
| Alms box | no fit | |
| Amulet counter | 0 | |
| Coffee pot | no fit | |
| Commercial coffee pot | no fit | |
| Computer | no fit | |
| Crib | no fit | |
| Desk | no fit | |
| Desk chair | no fit | |
| Divination table | +0.5 | expected People put their questions to the god with moon blocks and fortune sticks, and take home the poem the god chose. |
| Folding table | no fit | |
| Full-length mirror | no fit | |
| Pillar | +0.333 | |
| Projection screen | 0 | |
| Vestment cabinet | +0.333 | |
| Wooden table | no fit | |
| Utility | ||
| A/V rack | no fit | |
| Camera | no fit | |
| Cast-iron boiler | no fit | |
| Central air conditioner | no fit | |
| Commercial HVAC plant | no fit | |
| Commercial stove | no fit | |
| Congregation van | no fit | |
| Ductless heat pump | no fit | |
| Electric wall heater | no fit | |
| Gas furnace | no fit | |
| Hearing loop | no fit | |
| Lift | no fit | |
| Packaged heat pump | no fit | |
| Plumbing stack | no fit | |
| Ramp | no fit | |
| Shuttle bus | no fit | |
| Sink | no fit | |
| Solar panels | no fit | |
| Stairs | no fit | |
| Toilet | no fit | |
| Used school bus | no fit | |
| Wall camera | no fit | |
| Window air conditioner | no fit | |
| Grounds | ||
| Evergreen tree | no fit | |
| Flower bed | no fit | |
| Fountain | no fit | |
| Garden bench | no fit | |
| Guardian lions | 0 | |
| Hedge | no fit | |
| Joss paper furnace | +0.5 | expected Paper money and offerings for the gods and the dead are burned in the temple's furnace. |
| Paifang | 0 | |
| Playground | no fit | |
| Shade tree | no fit | |
| Temple censer | +0.5 | expected Visitors plant their incense in the great censer, sending their prayers up with the smoke. |
Variants
Chosen when you found the temple:
- Chinatown association temple: its own services: Open for incense, every day at 10:00 am; its own school; its own giving
- Fujianese village temple: its own services: Open for incense, every day at 9:00 am; its own giving
Sources
- Ma-Tsu Temple of U.S.A., home, About the Temple, About the Deities, and Services (link)
- Ma-Tsu Temple of U.S.A., news posts (link)
- Kenneth J. Guest, God in Chinatown (NYU Press, 2003) (link)
- Peter Romaskiewicz, Map of Temples in San Francisco's Chinatown, 1850s-1906 (link)
- Tin How Temple, Wikipedia (link)
- Thien Hau Temple (Los Angeles), Wikipedia (link)
- Kau Cim and Jiaobei, Wikipedia (link)
- Religiously unaffiliated Asian Americans, Pew Research Center (2023) (link)