Homeless Shelter for Impotent Deities

The flexibility of Chinese religious convictions is food for thought. This story suggests an interesting blend of confidence and reluctance.

YILAN, Taiwan -- Bulletins are going up in the western part of Suao, a fishing port near Yilan on northeast Taiwan. Put up by a temple of land gods or tu-di-gong, they complain it now has been burdened with too many unwanted images of local deities, including the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy.

"Please take them back," the bulletins urge.

Too Many Unwanted Deities

And on a different note, here is a link about a Daoist Dancer:

Dance of a Sage.

And since I mentioned it yesterday, here is an article about Japanese Tea Ceremony that at leasts credits Daoism, even if it fails to explain that connection.   Briefly, Japanese Tea Ceremony claims roots in Chan Buddhism and the particular way that Chan was adopted by the Samurai warrior class.  Chan Buddhism, in its competition with Daoism for patronage, developed a simplified version of a Daoist ritual in which local officials were asked to received a bowl of tea as representatives of all human life.