- Title: TAIWAN-GAY TEMPLE Taiwan's gays pray for soul mates at 'Rabbit' temple
- Date: 16th January 2015
- Summary: TAIPEI, TAIWAN (RECENT - JANUARY 8, 2015) (REUTERS) ALLEYWAY/ENTRANCE TO WEI-MING TEMPLE CHINESE CHARACTERS ON PLAQUE READING "WEI-MING TEMPLE" RABBIT GOD ON TABLE PRIEST LEADING 25-YEAR-OLD MARK IN PAINTING OF TAOIST GOD ON WALL MARK LIGHTING AND WAVING INCENSE MARK'S HANDS HOLDING INCENSE PRIEST INTRODUCING GODS TO MARK/MARK HOLDING INCENSE TAOIST GODS ON DISPLAY (SOUNDB
- Embargoed: 31st January 2015 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAADX14HESOMO4LHX3BN7I65EX5
- Story Text: Wei-ming temple is a house of Taoist worship with a twist; almost all of its congregants are gay.
The shrine, down a narrow alleyway in a bustling district of New Taipei City, is dedicated to a deity who has watched over homosexuals for four centuries.
Adherents believe pleasing the Rabbit God could lead to a match made in heaven.
For 22-year-old believer Mark, who comes to pray once a month, the temple has become his second home.
"When I am here, I feel another kind of sense of belonging that is different from what I feel at home. This sense of belonging is growing every time I come here along the days. So this is another reason that I come here and pray," he said.
Priest Lu Wei-ming founded the temple in 2006, at a time gays were excluded from most religious ceremonies.
Lu, who has taken a vow of celibacy and declined to answer questions about his sexuality, said he wanted to create a welcoming environment for a flock that had long been ostracized.
The nearly 9,000 people who seek Lu's counsel each year have one common goal - to find a suitable partner.
Twenty-five-year-old Xiao An was one of them.
Standing before the altar of the Wei-ming temple, the young man, sporting a rainbow pendant, held aloft a football-sized box full of prayers written on pieces of paper.
Priest Lu set the box ablaze, reciting Taoist chants as it burnt to ashes. Flames leaped up in quick bursts, an apparent sign that the Rabbit God has received his adherent's petitions.
"Coming here really helps, for example, I got into a beautiful relationship about two or three months after I prayed here with the help of 'Rabbit God'. I think this is a place is really amazing," said Xiao An.
According to local tales the Rabbit God, named Hu Tianbao, lived in the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century. He was attracted to an imperial inspector and was beaten to death after his unrequited love was exposed.
Officials in the underworld sympathized with him and appointed him as the deity overseeing homosexual relationships.
"Every month, there are two to three couples on average coming back to thank the God, sometimes there are as many as 10 couples. We heard that people found their partners three or five days after they made a wish, or in some cases, people found partners right in the hall of this temple," said the 28-year-old priest, adding that Wei-ming is the world's only shrine for homosexuals.
Liberal attitudes have led to the flourishing of gay culture on the island nation, with Taiwan's parliament debating a bill that would make it Asia's first to legalize same-sex marriage.
Lu said mainstream Taoist society remains stuck in a conservative mindset, although the most vocal opposition to Wei-ming temple has come from members of Taiwan's small yet active Christian community.
Lu described instances of Christian activists protesting in front of the temple, including one pastor who attempted to perform an exorcism before the altar of the Rabbit God. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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