Introduction - Gods' Imprints, Humans' Technology – Religious maps, Satellite Imagery

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1 Introduction - Gods Imprints, Humans Technology Religious maps, Satellite Imagery Fiorella Allio To cite this version: Fiorella Allio. Introduction - Gods Imprints, Humans Technology Religious maps, Satellite Imagery. Fiorella Allio; Fan I-chun. Atlas of the 2012 Religious Processions in the Tainan Region [ (2012) ], pp.10-25, 2014, <hal > HAL Id: hal Submitted on 13 May 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

2 西港慶安宮 麻豆代天府 蘇厝長興宮 土城鹿耳門聖母廟 學甲慈濟宮 鹿耳門天后宮 遶境儀式香路圖 圖集 2012 蘇厝真護宮第一代天府 臺南地區壬辰年 臺南地區壬辰年(2012)遶境儀式香路圖 圖集 Atlas of the 2012 Religious Processions in the Tainan Region 地理資訊科學研究專題中心 中央研究院人文社會科學研究中心 地理資訊科學研究專題中心 製作 Center for Geographic Information Science, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica

3 Atlas of the 2012 Religious Processions in the Tainan Region Center for Geographic Information Science, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica

4 Fiorella Allio Fiorella Allio Gods Imprints, Humans Technology Religious maps, Satellite Imagery

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8 (RCHSS) (GIS) GIS 2012 GIS-RCHSS

9 ( ) ( ) 1 1 Fiorella Allio [] Capturing Intangible Culture and Ephemeral Manifestations: the Perpetuation of Taiwanese Traditions in Temple Processions [Xiequ wuxing wenhua he duanzan huodong xianxian: Taiwan miaoyu raojing chuantong wenhua zhi yongxu chuancheng; ]. (Wenwu, wenhua yichan yu wenhua rentong; Objects, Cultural Heritage and Cultural Identity), [eds. Frank Muyard, Liang-kai Chou and Serge Dreyer], (

10 ) hiu n -tin (cult communities) (tin-thau) ( ) 2 (( ) ) (sin-kio) 3 (koah-hiu n ) (koah-hiu n ) 4 (Hakkah) (Tho. -sia n -a) (Moatau) (Saikang) 2012 (Kakkah hiu n ) (Tho. -sia n -a hiu n )(Moatau hiu n ) (Saikang-a hiu n ) 壠 (Siaulang hiu n ) Culture [Dangdai Zhongguo wenhua baikequanshu; ], London [ ]. Routledge. 4 yixiang 2 3 Fiorella Allio [] Procession [Zongjiao youxing ], Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese 5 [Huang Wen-po] [Nanying Koah-hiu n zhi; Monography of Koah-hiu n Processions in the Tainan Region]. : [Hsin-ying city, Tainan County, Tainan County Cultural Center]. 6 GIS 2011

11 7 ( Chhian-soe-ia) (So. -chhu Chin-ho. kiong) (So. -chhu Tiong-heng kiong) (Macho. -keng-a Thian-ho. kiong) (chhut-sun) 8 (iu-keng) ( ) (iu- chng) (seh-chng) (seh-ke) (?) (un-chng) (raojing) 7 ( ) 8 (lam-sun) (pak-siu)

12 (territorial processions) (pilgrimage processions) ( ) ( ) ( ) (hun-hiu n ) (cult) ( ) (hun-leng) 9 (hiu n -keng) (ritual territory) (hiu n -lo. ) (lo. -koan) ( ) (lo. -koan-pai) 9 (iat-cho. ) (chin-hiu n )

13 10 ( ) (koah-hiu n ) GPS ( ) (gia-kang-tin) 10 Fiorella Allio [] Spatial Organization in a Ritual Context. A Preliminary Analysis of the koah-hiu n Processional System of the Tainan Region and Its Social Significance [Yishi mailuo zhong de kongjian zuzhi. Tainan diqu Koah-hiu n raojing xitong zhi chubu fenxi ji qi shehui yiyi; ]. (Xinyang, yishi yu shehui; Beliefs, Ritual and Society), [ed. Lin Mei-jung], [Taipei]: [Academia Sinica, Institute of Ethnology]. 11 Fiorella Allio [] Ritual, Territory and Local Power: the Procession of the Saikang Region (Tainan, Taiwan) [in French] [Yishi, jingyu he difang shili: Taiwan Tainan Saikang diqu zhi Koah-hiu n huodong; []]. Ph.D. dissertation, Nanterre-Paris 10th University, Department of Ethnology and Comparative Sociology [ /, ]. 12 [Fiorella Allio] : [Raojing yu difang shenfen rentong: difang lishi de yishi shangyan; Processions and Identity: The Ritual Staging of Local History]. [Faguo hanxue congshu; Sinologie française] 7: [Zongjiaoshi zhuanhao; Special issue on religious history], / [Zhonghua shuju/ecole française d Extrême-Orient]. ; [Fang Shu-mei] [Tainan Saikang-a Koah-hiu n de kongjian xing; Spatiality in the Koah-hiu n of Saikang (Tainan)]. [Master Thesis, Department of Geography, National Taiwan Normal University]. (ka-pe n ) (lam-sun) (Siong Peh-ta) (Chhia n -Ma-cho. )

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15 Gods Imprints, Humans Technology Religious maps, Satellite Imagery This Atlas presents a series of forty-six maps recording processional routes. It deals with seven events and puts on view seven territories and sacred places in the region of Tainan. This new study of processions based on cartographic material constitutes an original entry into the understanding of Taiwan s cultural space, popular religion, as well as local history. Beyond words and comments, the maps of this Atlas speak for themselves and show that processions are definitely important phenomena. As we can see, these religious events evolve into vast regions when we compare their scales to those of the everyday life activities of the local people. Their magnitude is also conveyed by the fact that, in order for them to take place in this manner, across this vast amount of space, they have to mobilize thousands of people and bring into play plenty of resources. Their form can only be the result of extended experiences and memories accumulated over time. On another level, these maps draw direct attention to processional rituals, whereas one is used to looking at either other rituals or other ritual officiants to find the religious meaning of local festivals. Processions are, in fact, not just colorful adjunct to festivals, or subsidiary events but, instead, for the large majority of local people, their major focus in terms of participation and beliefs. Bringing into play a geographic representation, and most importantly here, a representation based on scientific data collected as the events take place (thanks to high-end technological methods and instruments), opens up a new way of considering the subject of processions and, even beyond, of local religious activities in Taiwan. The approach itself, applied to this type of object, is ground-breaking in the field of GIS and shows potential. The influence of religious beliefs and activities on space organization is an important socio-cultural parameter in Taiwan. Among all religious activities, processions play a prominent role in constructing space. The current technological means of geographic data collection enables us to give detailed account of processional routes and to project this union of human beings and their gods on a planetary scale via satellite imagery, therefore providing a place on Earth for apparently tiny but surely great folk events. Taiwan is one of the rare places around the world where the performance of religious processions of large dimension is still lively and overwhelming and, at the same time, where Geographic Informative Science system technology has been sophisticatedly developed. Using high-end technology to study intense traditions is a superb blend of two expressions of human creativity, making Taiwan a quite unique case in the world.

16 Thanks to the Geographic Informative Science system operated by the GIS Center, Research Center of Humanities and Social Sciences (RCHSS) of the Academia Sinica, the current documentation could be gathered and processed. The present maps are just one portion of the GIS Center archived digital data. Due to favorable timing and proximity, these seven Tainan events have been put together to form a unique body in order to facilitate comparative research. I, myself, took part in this project as a visiting scholar at the GIS-RCHSS in 2012 and by reason of my specialization on Taiwanese popular religion with a specific focus on processions. Tainan being the region where I have been conducting extensive fieldwork for the past twenty-five years, I could also facilitate contacts and decisions with temples responsible persons and local people. Toward a real appreciation of processions Social sciences have demonstrated that the organization of space is not naturally given, and that each society constructs the space it occupies. Each society stamps its mark on the space around it and, in return, this constructed space epitomizes the profound expression of local organization and culture. The notion of territory is even more complex, since it results from an authority (be it worldly or symbolic) that applies over a space with borders and that ensures its defense; from it expands a sense of belonging and identity. The local society of the region of Tainan, where the former Taichiang and Taofeng lagoons lay, has chosen a striking and significant way to imprint the space it occupies and to construct, over time, both its territory and its cultural identity. It does so through the regular performances of collective rituals taking the form of processions. A wide range of people believe that processions have little significance and only pay attention to the spectacular appearance of their corteges, thinking that those only amount to a noisy and colorful animation. To reduce Taiwanese traditional processions to a type of carnival parade would be a great mistake, and local communities should prevent their transformation into mere tourist attractions, cultural shows, commercial ventures, or else opportunities of public exposure for politicians, since this would cause actually is already causing direct and rapid damage to their inner structure and functions. The actual qualities of processions that outsiders be they tourists, traders, patrons, politicians, the public, the media are looking for in the first place are, ironically, gradually impaired by their very presence! These outsiders then become the unintended destroyers of what they claim to value. It is necessary to swiftly acknowledge that the notion of cultural sustainability also applies in the case of traditions and that a large section of traditional immaterial culture in Taiwan is already in jeopardy, despite its increasing recognition. Various parameters show that these paradoxes could become fatal 1. 1 Cf. Fiorella Allio [] Capturing Intangible Culture and Ephemeral Manifestations: The Perpetuation of Taiwanese Traditions in Temple Processions [Xiequ wuxing wenhua he duanzan huodong xianxian: Taiwan miaoyu raojing chuantong wenhua zhi yongxu chuancheng; ]. In Objects, Heritage and Cultural Identity (Wenwu, wenhua yichan yu wenhua rentong; ), eds. Frank Muyard, Liang-Kai Chou and Serge Dreyer [ ], Nantou [ ]: Taiwan Historica [ ].

17 Furthermore, another group of people may think that processions are not rituals per se and are just performed in occasion of another ritual event of greater importance, to which they are necessarily subordinated, such as a Taoist service, jiao ( ), or a Service celebrating the Royal Lords of Epidemics in a palace, wangfu keyi ( ), or the Burning of a Royal Boat, shao wangchuan (), often carried out during the same festival. Processions may be related to other rituals, indeed, like in Saikang, and even more so in So. -chhu, but may be, on the contrary, self-contained and exclusive like in Moatau. Thus, processions hold their own functions and form a symbolic and social framework in themselves. They should be studied for their intrinsic value, as topics in their own right. How should we appreciate them without damaging them? How should we approach them and reveal their true nature? One of the objectives of this Atlas is to contribute to a better understanding of processions, and the method proposed offers new perspectives for data collection and analysis, key stages for an elaboration of knowledge. Processions and space construction Traditional processions are religious in nature and their display is as intense as their components are rich. But at the same time, processions are rituals with strong spatial connotations and this is why they are specifically addressed here. Actually, of all the forms of rituals, processions are the most deeply connected to territory. During the performance of processions, ritual actors step on their land and get a sense of the space on an actual scale. They reach various points and go through definite steps and, as in the case of the processions we are dealing with in this Atlas, eventually circumscribe the spatial sphere and mark the territorial boundaries that need to be symbolically reaffirmed, and protected from supernatural aggressions. In other words, this type of ritual moves all along within the area that the ritual action is expected to impact. What does that mean? Why is that so special, though seemingly trivial? Compared with other ritualistic ways, in other cultures, of expressing a link with the space and influencing it, such as, for instance, reciting a list of place names during a rite and making the gesture of trampling, or drawing on a material medium a site and making it sacred, or projecting mentally a miniaturized oriented sphere over an existing territory, or representing a metaphor of the universe on earth, the performance of a procession, as for it, proceeds differently. It is through their immediate and physical action, their on-the-spot displacement, that the participants, be they human or supernatural, conceive achieving their ritual goal and influencing their living space. During the time of the performance, the actual territory becomes a large sacred sphere in which the inhabitants play the role of ritual actors. In Taiwan, we can find various types of processions, even if, from the outside, their appearance and their content look quite similar, with processional troupes or floats, banners, flags, placards, lanterns, percussions, parasols, palanquins. These elements are not put together haphazardly, but are arranged in an orderly manner

18 and structured by an embedded system. Processions can mobilize thousands of ritual agents that act, not individually, but within a formation called processional formation (hiu n -tin, ), sent by the villages, the cult communities they belong to. Dozens of local communities and temples are represented this way and dozens of cortege formations are operated by the locals. The two main units composing a formation are, in order of march, firstly, a processional troupe (tin-thau, literally ahead of the formation ), in the front as its generic name indicates 2, such as a Songjiang Troupe, a Flowery Drum Troupe floats or carriages, such as the Centipedes, occupy the same position and, secondly, a palanquin (sin-kio, ), at the rear, containing deities statues and an incense-burner. The crowd of worshipers, pilgrims, votaries, representing only themselves or close family members, follow the cortege with a stick of incense in their hands. Sometimes they precede the main deity of the cortege, sweeping and cleaning up the way. The scope and functions of processions may vary a lot from one to another, calling in each case for a careful identification and characterization of underlying patterns. 3 Sometimes one model of procession asserts itself and spread out over an entire region, as is the case for the koah-hiu n in the Tainan region of concern here. Processional landscape in Taiwan, with special focus on Tainan Koah-hiu n ( ), as they are called in Tainan 4 (literally, to share out incense ), constitute the most spectacular examples of Taiwanese territorial processions. Four of the seven events covered by the present Atlas are called koah-hiu n : those of the regions of Hakkah ( ), Tho. -sia n -a (), Moatau ( ), Saikang ( ); events abbreviated as Hakkah hiu n (), Tho. -sia n -a hiu n ( ), Moa-tau hiu n (), Saikang-a hiu n ( ), to list them according their chronological order in One striking fact regarding the region surrounding the Zengwen River is that it celebrates five huge koah-hiu n. Huang Wen-po has coined them as Nanying wu daxiang ( ) in a book published by the Cultural Center of Tainan County 5. This expression has been retained and used again and again, under different circumstances. This Atlas is showing four of them, since they took place in the same period of time, during the spring of Out of the five, only the koah-hiu n of Siaulong ( 壠 ) (present-day Chiali ( )), which occurred one year earlier, is missing 6. Each festival is independent of the others and draws dozens of villages, thousands of residents together. Each one delimits its ritual boundaries and 2 Traditionally, yizhen ( ) is never used, never employed by the actors and organizers of processions. This term, which is relatively recent, reminds us that vernacular designations are often despised and considered not prestigious enough, regardless of their intrinsic meaning and the important information they purport about the context they belong to. 3 Cf. Fiorella Allio [] Procession [Zongjiao youxing ]. In Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture [Dangdai zhongguo wenhua baikequanshu; ], London: Routledge. 4 The Mandarin pronunciation of this term, which would be yixiang, is never used by the locals. 5 Cf. [Huang Wen-po] [Nanying Koah-hiu n zhi; Monography of Koah-hiu n Processions in the Tainan Region]. [Hsin-ying city, Tainan County]: [Tainan County Cultural Center]. 6 However, the GIS Center had collected the same kind of data in 2011, thanks to the tireless endeavor of Hung Ying-fa () and his many comrades.

19 circumscribes its own sacred territory. These divisions do not correspond to administrative ones and follow a different logic of distinction from that concerned by official government. Each territory is oriented toward a geographical center where a central temple is located. It is rare, although not impossible, that this location and the central temple would change over time 7. This center is also the focal point from where the cortege departs every morning and goes back to every night. The name of the central temple is sometimes used for the denomination and localization of the whole festival but it is understood that all the participating temples and communities of the procession, in this case all the local temples, are equally important for its accomplishment. Without them, the performance of a koah-hiu n would not be possible, and the event would simply be something else. This is an essential characteristic to be distinguished and one would not grasp the basic meaning of the koah-hiu n type of rituals in the Tainan region otherwise. Indeed, the route of the procession leads to all of these temples and communities, and the cortege is made up almost exclusively of their formations. Another particularity of the koah-hiu n type of procession is that it takes place on a regular basis, generally every three years, and in some cases is organized at the same time as the greeting of Royal Lords of Epidemics (un-ong ( )), called Chhian-soe-ia (), and a Taoist service for the Royal Lords (ong-chio ( )). Two other processions which centers are, in chronological order, So. -chhu Chin-ho. kiong ( ) and So. -chhu Tiong-heng kiong ( ), are not called koah-hiu n by the locals. These tours of inspections are considered as ritual extensions of the more static ceremonies performed in the Royal Palace (wangfu ) for hosting the Royal Lords of Epidemics. The presence of two central temples in Sucuo results from a split of the original cult community. Thus, their processions partially overlapping, of a smaller size, duration and range, compared with the other ones in the Atlas, somehow imply a notion of inner space construction. In Addition, they also include processional visits to allied temples, outside their immediate territories, and especially for that of Chin-ho. -kiong, to Liu-ia n ( ), from where the first Royal Boat So. -chhu ever hosted is supposed to originate. The last type of procession dealt with is the most particular of this series. The event was organized at the initiative of Macho. -keng-a Thian-ho. kiong ( ) and is not performed on a regular basis. Its pattern is totally different since it is not a territorial procession in the strict sense but a chhut-sun ( ), yet with strong orientation notions. In the present case, the movement is mainly oriented towards the east, from the point of view of Thian-ho. kiong, close to the western coastline. 8 The daily spatial sections of the route are continuous, that is, each one starts where the previous one ends, forming a loop only in the end; their spatial reference is not a center. To put it simply, the main deity, Matsu, goes on a ritual 7 This has already happened in the region of Saikang. The Koah-hiu n involves nowadays ninety-odd cult communities, with Qing an gong () as a geographical center, but, more than two hundred years ago, it started with thirteen villages, with Yide gong () (today Guma gong ()) as a focal center. 8 Yet, this three-day eastward procession is preceded, five days earlier, by a one-day long southward itinerary called lam-sun ( ). Very often the directions north, south, east and west are included in the vernacular names designating these oriented processions. The verbs suggesting the march may vary according to cardinal directions, such as in lam-sun, pak-siu ( ).

20 excursion in the region for three days and visits allied temples; she spends two nights outside. During her tour, she is accompanied by the palanquins and formations of allied temples but not necessarily those she is visiting during her journey. It is the symbolic efficacy of the deity Matsu and the involvement of Thian-ho. kiong that generate such huge support and participation from temples. All the nuances mentioned above and their socio-religious implications are very important and mean a lot to the locals. Consequently, they need to be clearly taken into consideration during the analytical stage. In themselves, they confirm the complexity of the religious processions phenomena. Elsewhere in Taiwan, there exist many processions with a clear territorial scope too, detaining more or less the same characteristics as the ones described above, although rarely reaching their dimensions. They might involve several segments and form an inter-communal procession or be a single unit circulating on its own territory, sometimes assisted by allied temples; sometimes the partners rotate for its performance but the results are supposed to benefit to all. They might be designated by different names according to local customs and local idioms, or just by a generic term, such as, iu-keng ( ) the most usual, whatever the scope of the procession may be, iu-chng ( ), seh-chng ( ), seh-ke ( ), un-chng ((?) ) in hok-lo language. Raojing ( ) entails the same notion but is the generic designation of this category of events in mandarin, not in vernacular language. Processions unquestionably imply and reveal social networks. In some places, those networks do exist, but do not materialize into a coordinated spatial and temporal event, such as a procession, and remain the sum of independent ritual acts, with only basic spatial attributes. Processions as social forms of organization Structurally speaking, territorial processions have to be distinguished from pilgrimage processions, precisely in regards to the notion of territory that the formers do convey and the latters do not. Rather than making a loop departing every day from and returning to a central point according to an itinerary that manifests in the end the limits of the entire territory and, above all, that distinguishes an exterior from an interior a common space of identification, a pilgrimage procession, instead, is linear. It goes back and forth: starting from one place, heading towards a main destination sometimes making several stops in-between, then, returning to its starting point, without encircling any space, delimiting any boundary, nor visiting the temples of the formations present in the cortege. Moreover, the two types of processional events are based on different socio-religious institutions. Broadly speaking, pilgrimages, without mentioning all nuances since my concern here only relates to the construction of space and the distribution of symbolic power two aspects intricately interwoven, are underpinned by the institution of "division of incense" (hun-hiu n ), an act through which a subsidiary cult is established from an original/old one. This act consists of taking incense ashes from the main incense-burner of the ancestral temple and of placing the ashes into the incense-burner of the subsidiary temple

21 sometimes into another material support. On the field, this type of rite can also be called "division of supernatural power" (hun-leng ), which is an expression emphasizing, in some way, the manifestation of the inherent power of the divinity. Such a bond is held in collective memory, maintained through regular visits and renewals of the initial act, hence the performance of communal pilgrimages. 9 Absolutely no similar ritual act or its renewal is performed for the fulfillment of a territorial procession and its most elaborate illustration, the koah-hiu n type of procession; neither any metaphorical descent is necessary for its institution. The partners of the procession rather unite on the principles of equal participation and reciprocal exchange and they do not necessarily worship the same deity. Their focus is principally on the delimitation of a common territory, its symbolic defense, its promotion, its prosperity, the resolution of supernatural problems taking place on it, and at the same time, on the regulation of their mutual relations within this territory. Such a territory is not just an abstract construct; it is physically highlighted through the itinerary of the procession, the march of the participants. This inner territory has a specific vernacular name: hiu n -keng ( ), meaning ritual territory. The route of the procession is called incense road (hiu n -lo. ). The term incense is multifaceted: burned in temples and in each palanquin, incense is brought all over the territory where exorcism, pacification and 9 The tricky thing is that, very often, not all stops on a pilgrimage tour are conditioned by a symbolic descent link. This criterion determines important distinctions in vernacular language. A pilgrimage procession in the situation where the visited temple is the original place of cult is called iat-cho. ( ), otherwise it is called chin-hiu n ( ), which is more generic and can imply various phenomena. Moreover, an existing symbolic descent link may be contested over time, and an original destination may be discarded. blessing are performed. It has also come to mean ritual, religious, sacred in general. The hiu n -lo. includes different lo. -koan ( ) (stops/steps/passes) such as temples located in the heart of villages, or specific spots, but also the space in-between the stops, natural and supernatural, which the procession is also meant to influence. The cortege of the procession is introduced by a symbolic object also charged with religious meaning called lo. -koan-pai (), passes placard, consisting of a board on which are written the different stops and stages of the itinerary, sometimes orientations and directions. A new placard is prepared every day for the section of the territory that the procession has to visit. Inter-communal territorial processions operate the physical linkage, at a symbolic level but also at a socio-religious level, of cult communities. They bond together entities living in contiguity within the same region. Otherwise those villages would be just neighbors, organized internally but separately from one another. Here they form a supra-local institution, a socio-religious type of alliance, structured by the accomplishment of the same large-scale ritual, by the construction of a common place 10. In return, inter-communal territorial processions, more than any other ritual, are able to make manifest the social and symbolic organization of an entire region: they are both driving forces and revelators. Not only do they entail religious facets they accomplish 10 Cf. Fiorella Allio [] Spatial organization in a ritual context. A preliminary analysis of the Koah-hiu n processional system of the Tainan region and its social significance [Yishi mailuo zhong de kongjian zuzhi. Tainan diqu Koah-hiu n raojing xitong zhi chubu fenxi ji qi shehui yiyi; ]. In Beliefs, Ritual and Society (Xinyang, yishi yu shehui; ), ed. Lin Mei-rong [ ], Taipei [ ]: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica [ ].

22 simultaneously an exorcism, a propitiation and a blessing, in order to get rid of noxious elements and to attract prosperity all over the territory, but they also contain socio-political dimensions, forming a holistic system of representation and organization of local society 11. On another level, territorial processions are the engines of collective identity as they drive local communities into developing a profound rooting and collective sense of belonging that last over time, sometimes despite dramatic alterations of the environment 12. This last aspect makes the case of the processions taking place where the former Taichiang and Taofeng lagoons lay, sometimes over two hundred years old, even more significant. How to scroll through the pages of this Atlas This Atlas presents a large series of maps recording processional routes. One can embrace all of them at a single glance looking at the summarized record on page one. On the following pages, as noted above, processions are sorted according to the date of their occurrences, one case after the other, day after day. For each of 11 Cf. Fiorella Allio [] Ritual, Territory and Local Power: the Procession of the Saikang Region (Tainan, Taiwan) [in French], [Yishi, jingyu he difang shili: Taiwan Tainan Saikang diqu Koah-hiu n huodong; []]. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology and Comparative Sociology, Paris 10 th University-Nanterre, France [ ]. 12 Cf. [Fiorella Allio] : [Raojing yu difang shenfen rentong: difang lishi de yishi shangyan; Processions and Identity: the Ritual Staging of Local History], [Faguo hanxue congshu; Sinologie française], [Zongjiaoshi zhuanhao; Special issue on religious history] 7: [Peking]: / [Zhonghua shuju/ecole française d Extrême-Orient]; [Fang Shu-mei] [Tainan Saikang-a Koah-hiu n de kongjian xing; Spatiality in the Koah-hiu n of Saikang (Tainan)]. [Taipei] [Guoli Taiwan shifan daxue dili yanjiu suo shuoshi lunwen; Master Thesis, Department of Geography, National Taiwan Normal University]. the seven events, one map gathers in the first place all the spatiotemporal sections of the procession, that is to say, the entire surface area covered by the cortege after several days. On some of the days, two different processional events were unfolding at the same time in the region, attesting to the intensity of Tainan socio-religious life, but increasing the technical difficulty of data collection! The territorial processions called koah-hiu n implicitly form a whole section by themselves, as they are the four last events, and the last and larger set of maps in the Atlas. For the four koah-hiu n cases, one will find two separate maps for a single day. These documents summarize the data collected by distinct GPS equipment placed on two different types of processional components: on a palanquin (sin-kio ) in almost all cases, that of the main deity seating at the rear of the cortege, and on the Centipede (gia-kang-tin ). This dual data collection takes into account the fact that the Centipede does not necessarily follow the same route as that of the rest of the cortege, for ritual reasons since it has to execute special rites on its side, and practical reasons since it is an extended carriage quite difficult to handle. At the same time, this sheds more light on one particularity of the koah-hiu n type of processions in the Tainan region: all of them include magnificent, mysterious, powerful Centipedes in their corteges. In doing fieldwork research on these processions, one can also notice that other types of processional events are embedded within bigger ones or are performed during the same festival. Some are accomplished in preparation, such as the ka-pe n ( ) of the Centipede, other ones are included in the general

23 framework of the festival, mining on the mobilization of people, such as Saikang Keng-an kiong lam-sun ( ). Sometimes a rite would unfold on one particular site which would influence the timing and, most importantly for our concern here, the route of the procession, such as Siong Peh-ta () during Hakkah hiu n, or Chhia n - Ma-cho. () for Saikang-a hiu n. They were included in the Atlas because they had a processional form and were parts of the festivals anyway, sometimes bound up inextricably. Besides, they told something about space conception and processions characteristics. The only missing pieces here are the processions for the invitation of the Gods of Epidemics, and those for their farewell aboard a sacred Boat burnt to signify their symbolic journey back to Heaven (in So. -chhu and in Saikang). The last ones have the particularity not only of being linear but also with no return, in the sense that the cortege is totally dismantled prior to the return and the participants go back to the area of departure on their own. The whole endeavor of data collection and processing is an on-going process and these kinds of maps can be refined and corrected while the data can be expanded. Actually this will be done later, in the near future, with the conduct of more fieldwork enquiries. The most important thing is that the difficult part has already been accomplished and these ephemeral events have been seized and transcribed onto maps. significance, faith and expectations, at least for the locals. Taiwan is one of the last rare places in the Chinese-speaking world where one can see this form of religious activities in all its social and historical depth. With the disappearance of traditional culture worldwide, this type of phenomena will acquire even more value in the future. We need to make sure now that they, as well as the knowledge attached to them, will be transmitted to the next generations. In the field of our competence remains the immense and unprecedented task of tracing the intricate but fabulous ritual and spiritual map of Taiwan, where every region maintains their socio-religious organizational systems with spatial connotations. We still have an opportunity today to draw this type of map that is real, although inscribed in collective memories and in immaterial and ephemeral activities. This socio-religious representation of Taiwan may become more and more precise with the kind of small steps walked through this Atlas. As one has hopefully already understood, processions are indeed important manifestations of human activity, as well as influential folk institutions in Taiwan. Their vivacity and longevity prove that their performance is loaded with

24 Atlas of the 2012 Religious Processions in the Tainan Region