神明聯誼會=When Buddha Meets the Gods Event; 人間佛教=Humanistic Buddhism; 宗教意涵=meaning of religion; 神明=gods and deities; 朝山進香=pilgrimage and incense offering; 聖誕=saints’ birthday
Under the background of Taiwan’s prosperous folk religion and the frequency of going to the temple to offer incense and praying to gods and deities, the creation of the “When Buddha Meets the Gods Event” break the usual religious mode of communication where people offer incense in temples. Many different gods and deities, temple associations, and even devotees of different religions as well as committee members gather in the Buddha Museum, leading the effect of interactions between local folk deities and Buddha. How can a Buddhist organization-founded event on gods and deities be understood? This dissertation will look at religious activities such as incense offering to gods and deities, pilgrimages, and temple ceremony and compare it with the “When Buddha Meets the Gods Event” in order to understand the differences and similarities between the content and meaning of iconology of the event and folk religions. The interactions presented in the event contains traditional way that folk religion pay respects through its activity, as well as Buddhist traditions such as the purification process of pilgrimage, constant learning and improvement as forms of paying respect. Through the entrance of the gods and deities, it transforms folk beliefs into self-belief and confidence, as well as respect and tolerance between religions. As for the time and date of the event, it gives “December 25”, the “Western” celebration of “Christmas” a new meaning, creating an Eastern Christmas (or Day of the Birth of Saint) where gods and deities are celebrated together, creating an exciting day where human, deities and Buddha celebrate in a single event. The activities of “Awarding the Buddha Flag”, “Offering Gold Buddha Medal to the Gods and Deities” and “Sending Off the Deities through the Incense Burner” transform and improve on the traditional meaning of the activities. The goal of this dissertation is to research how Venerable Master Hsing Yun uses the concepts of Humanistic Buddhism to interpret the religious meaning behind “When Buddha Meets the Gods Event”. This dissertation will also analyze the features and spirit of “When Buddha Meets the Gods Event” by first looking at the concepts of festivals, temple ceremonies, deities’ birthday. Next, the dissertation will look at religious ceremony, cultural significance of living iconography, festival time and date, and the use of space.in search for similarities and differences between “When Buddha Meets the Gods Event” and the tradition of incense offering in folk religions. Under Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s idea of “Respect and Tolerance”, the design of “When Buddha Meets the Gods Event” presents Humanistic Buddhism’s openness and integration towards traditional folk religions. With the ideology of “accepting differences in togetherness”, the event brings people, Buddha, bodhisattvas, and deities together into a big religious festival. Through practical interactions between religions, it presents people’s respect and devotion towards their faith, and more importantly respect and tolerance towards other religions. These interactions and communications allow religions and people to understand each other, thus exhibiting Buddhism’s original spirit of Buddhism of transforming so
