Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan >Customs and Legends
Offering a Sacrifice to King’s Boat in Donggang
Offering a Sacrifice to King’s Boat in Donggang, also known as "burning king’s boat in Donggang", is a unique religious rite and sacrificial ceremony of Taiwan. Taiwan is also very famous for religious events and tourist celebrations, and this celebration is key amongst them. In Donglong Temple of Donggang Township, the famous Wang Ye worship site of strategic importance in southern Taiwan as well as the religious center of Donggang, the sacrifice to Wang Ye’s boat is held every three years. At the scheduled time, a magnificently built king’s boat will be cremated after many complicated religious rites. The purpose of this is to have malicious gods expelled by the spirits of Wang Ye.
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Five Religious Happenings You Don’t Want to Miss

Donggang Burning of the King Boat The ornate Donglong (Eastern Dragon) Temple, by the sea in the southwest fishing port of Donggang, is site for the town’s week-long Burning of the King Boat festival, largest and most elaborate of its kind in Taiwan. The kings or plague gods, called Wangye, have been worshipped for centuries as protectors against pestilence and disease. This festival, filled with the parading of Wangye images and elaborate large-scale temple activities, happens every three years in the ninth lunar month, October/November, at other times elsewhere. A nearly full-size mock-up of a junk is constructed, placed atop a mountain of spirit money, plague gods put aboard, and the vessel heaped high with sacrificial offerings ranging from foods to replica TVs and replica fancy cars. After elaborate Daoist ceremonies on the last day, in the middle of the night the boat is set alight and ceremonially sent to sea to carry pestilence away (burnings are now conducted onshore to prevent misery floating ashore in other communities). Onlookers pray for peace.

GRAPPLING WITH HUNGRY GHOSTS – TOUCHENG QIANGGU FESTIVAL

The idea to hitchhike through Taiwan came when I was at a bus stop in the wee hours of the night, waiting to head back to Taipei from a little township a distance away. I only mentioned it in passing that I would probably be home already if I wanted to hitch a ride. A week later I put this barely-thought-out idea into action. I will hitchhike from north to south to the small township of Donggang in time for the King Boat Festival. My goal was to first get to Kaohsiung, spend the night, and then continue to the festival the next day.

Donggang King Boat Ceremony

The Ceremony of Donggang King Boat is the largest one in Taiwan. The ceremony lasts for 7 days. It begins with the rituals of "Welcoming Wangyeh" and "passing over the fire" held on the seashore on the first day, a four-day procession trip of Wangyeh around Donggang and neighboring towns is taken place starting from the second day, a boat touring procession is held on the sixth day, and on the seventh day, the ceremony of sending off Wangyeh is held and the king boat is burned as a symbolization of driving away diseases and evil spirits.

Knowledge Graph
Examples

1 In this region, there is a famous boat festival of the Donglong Temple in Donggang.

2 The burning of the boat is the grand sending off of the Wangye, who will return again three years later, and the week’s religious events and rituals are intended to cleanse the area around Donggang of evil and disease for the next three years.

3 The Boat Burning Festival, or the Donggang King Boat Ceremony, is a well-known religious ceremony that happens once every three years.