Since
its opening in 2011, the Buddha Museum has hosted this event every single year.
This time, we will take you on a journey
to see in detail what happens during this event.
A day before
the event, guests from overseas or further areas of Taiwan arrive at Fo Guang
Shan and leave their statues at the Fuhui Home for Spiritual Cultivation. One
of our most special visitors is from the Basilica del Santo Niño. The statue of
Santo Niño came by plane from the Philippines and has participated in this
event almost every year.
Days before the
event, volunteers from around Taiwan arrive and start setting up the venue. On
the actual day of the event, more volunteers arrive to help cook tons of food
and pack them into lunch boxes. All food and water provided at the venue on 25
Dec is free.
Apart from
actual participants, scholars who specialized in folk religion and religious
study converged at the Buddha Museum a day or two before the event. They came to
witness firsthand the sheer size and number of audience that the museum could
bring in one day.
One of the more
special aspects of 2018 When Buddha Meets the Gods Event is the participation
of home deities. Many devotees also wished to attend this event so a special
procedure was set up where normal people could sign up for participation.
On the actual
day, participants who had arrived the day before, set out from Fo Guang Shan’s Fuhui
Home for Spiritual Cultivation.
Participants
make their way to the Buddha Museum and arrive at around 7 am in the morning.
Here, the
famous sight of the never-ending procession making their way toward the Main
Hall, taken from Front Hall 2F.
The procession
alight the stairs on either side of the entrance of the Main Hall.
Once there,
each statue is given a special badge by a monk to announce their arrival and
participation.
The statues are
then placed on the stands that align along the steps at the top of the Main
Hall.
After the
statues are placed in their rightful order, the representative from the World
Record Association will count all the statues that are present.
Since the
Taoist religion takes up one third of the population in Taiwan, there are
numerous temples and shrines located in each town and village. One of the
Taoist traditions involves ritualistic dancing, which is dancing merged with Chinese
martial arts. Apart from the costumes, face painting is also an important
factor since this is how each character is recognized.
The height of
the event is the Prayer Ceremony followed closely by the World Record
Declaration. This year, both the Fo Guang Shan Monastery and Buddha Museum are
used as venues to house these statues. We have set new world record with 3,478
statues present, the most number of statues.
After the
ceremony is over, the throng of people turn around and the procession slowly
make their way back to the front of the museum. Thus, it was
another successful event this year. We hope that you can join us next year and
witness this unique event yourselves.