台灣的民間佛教傳統與「巖仔」的觀音信仰之社會實踐=The Tradition of Folk Buddhism in Taiwan as Revealed in the Kuan-yin Belief in Giam-a (Mountain Temples) and its Social Practice
林美容為中央研究院民族所研究員(Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica) 蘇全正為中正大學歷史所博士生(Ph. D. Student, Department of History, National Chung Cheng University)
Giam-a (巖仔) is a type of traditional temples in Taiwan, usually located at the foot, on the hill, or the top of the mountain. Many of Giam-a temples have long history and enjoy reputation of prosperous incense offerings. Pilgrims usually visit Giam-a temples at the beginning of the year, together with their sightseeing tours or weekend activities. This special type of temples is popular yet it does not attract scholarly attention as it deserves. It is attempted in this paper to explore the religious characteristics and religious practices of Giam-a temples in its social arena, especially in concern with the Kuan-yin belief which is the major deity in Giam-a. Giam-a temples can be distinguished from Buddhist Ssu (寺) and Miao (廟) in folk religion, yet it largely inclined toward the characteristics of Miao, in the way that Kuan-yin is worshipped as a female deity instead of a bodhisattva , that it endures the concept of Hsiang-huo (香火), and that it’s artitecture with sticking roof resembles any local temple. The more important indication of merging with folk religion is the local cults and the regional cults developed from the Giam-a. Local deities may be worshipped together with Kuan-yin so that the burning of paper money one can observe in some Giam-a temples. For some Giam-a temples which are currently managed by Buddhist monks or nuns, the conflict between the laymen believers and these monks and nuns. The quarrels over the use of paper money and animal sacrifice, the competition on the right of temple property and management have occurred frequently. The fundamental conflict mainly lies on the different perception of the history of Giam-a and the ideological difference between Ssu and Miao concerning that how a Giam-a should be run. There is also great gap between laymen practices and the teaching of Buddhist orthodox.
