On Lantern Festival in Penghu, if you look all around you from a high vantage point, the most dazzling spectacle can be found in Wai-an Village in Hsiyu Rural Township. Hundreds of fishing boats crowd into the Wai-an harbor, and at the prearranged moment (selected for its auspiciousness), all their fishing lights-bulbs of over 1000 watts each-light up at once, turning the nighttime sky over Wai-an into a sheet of bright white. This maritime Lantern Festival is something that you could never experience on the main island of Taiwan.

Maritime Lantern Festival

Even before the gasps of the crowd of more than 10,000-jammed into the temple grounds and along the harbor-fade away, thousands of lights on land and sea flash on at once, and an enormous fireworks display of pulsating red and purple gets the crowd again crying out with delight. Wei Ching-yang, chairman of the Wen Wang Temple in Wai-an, says with pride and satisfaction: "The people of Wai-an aren't afraid of spending money, they are only afraid of losing face." It is estimated that the fireworks on the third night of Lantern Festival celebrations in Wai-an run to over NT$1 million.

Wei Ching-yang relates that the Wai-an fishing-boat-light tradition originated indirectly from a rather unique folk custom of the people of Wai-an. On New Year's Eve they seal tight the main doors of their houses. The doors are only opened at an auspicious time on the first day of the new year, while at the same time people declaim proverbs meant to bring good luck, such as: "After the main gate is opened, the money piles up." In the interval before that auspicious time, people must come and go through the back door. Similar rules apply to fishing boats. On New Year's Eve they must return to harbor and turn off their engines, and can only restart their motors at an auspicious time on the fourth or fifth day of the new year. Since lights have a special meaning to Taiwanese, representing not only hope, but also "a son" (the word for light in Taiwanese has the same pronunciation as the word for "another male child"), they have always turned on their fishing lights at the same time. Thirty years ago, when construction of the Wai-an fishing harbor was completed, fishermen agreed to make this customary, and to turn on their lights during the Lantern Festival holiday. This event is now considered one of the eight wonders of Penghu.

Home of the sea turtle

Of course, while it is all well and good to admire the glittering fishing boat lights of Wai-an, the real main event of Lantern Festival in Penghu is the qigui-appeal to the sacred tortoises. While there are a few scattered qigui activities at temples in Taiwan proper, not only are those in Penghu of a much larger scale, but every temple there devotes considerable time and energy to coming up with innovations, making turtles of various materials and design, and of unique character. Not only do local people like to take their chances at getting a sacred turtle they can bring home for luck, many people even come from Taiwan proper to have a go themselves. You could consider this the most representative folk custom in Penghu.

"In Penghu, Lantern Festival is ten times more action-packed than the lunar new year itself," says Hsu Yao-pin, a local writer. The history of Chinese settlement in this chain of islands, long known to Westerners as the Pescadores, goes back four hundred years earlier than in Taiwan. Here people have made their living from the sea, and the desire for divine assistance in this precarious existence has given rise to more than 200 temples large and small, giving Penghu an average of two temples per village or neighborhood-the highest concentration of any locality in Taiwan.

Each year at Lantern Festival, temples in Penghu organize qigui activities, following past traditions and setting the whole place rolling for three days and nights. Just walk along the street, and you can see many shops displaying sacred turtles that the owners have brought back home, with incense stuck into the bodies of the figurines. "As long as you are from Penghu, you probably have been through the qigui experience," says the boss of a souvenir shop.

The Chinese fondness for the tortoise can be traced back at least 4500 years to the Neolithic era. Artifacts of the Yangshao Culture unearthed in Henan Province in mainland China have depictions of tortoises. As a symbol of longevity and good fortune, the turtle was considered one of the "four sacred beasts" along with the dragon, phoenix, and kirin (or qilin). It was widely revered, and was regularly featured in popular festivities and important ritual passages in life.

The word for turtle in Mandarin Chinese is a homophone for the word "to return" or "to bring in." According to a book by a Qing-dynasty scholar named Chu Shaosun, the tortoise will "bring in" wealth and the whole household will certainly prosper. Perhaps even more coincidentally, in Taiwanese the word for tortoise is a homophone for the word for "long life." On top of that, the fact that the land turtle has five toes on its front feet and four toes on its back feet coincides with the expression "five front, four back," which symbolizes longevity and endurance. These auspicious connections all deepen the importance of the qigui culture to the people residing along the coast of Southern Fujian. This is especially the case in Penghu, home of the sea turtles.

The temples on Penghu Island proper which put on the most important qigui activities include the Tien Hou Temple (in the town of Makung), the San Sheng Temple in Aimen Village (on the eastern edge), and the Shang Ti Temple in Shanshui Village and the Pei Chi Temple in Suokang (both on the southern tip). Other important temples for qigui can be found north over the long sea bridge: the Lung Te Temple in Chihkan and the Wen Wang Temple in Wai-an. Local people enthusiastically tell tourists to be sure not to miss the enormous rice turtle at the Tien Hou Temple, or the pure golden turtles that form the centerpiece of a rivalry between the Shang Ti and Pei Chi houses of worship.

Yang Kuo-fu, chairman of the Tien Hou Temple, explains: "Our giant rice turtle is known as the 'eight-trigrams fortune-bringing great auspicious long-life turtle,' and we have a Taoist priest come to consecrate the image." Yang adds that this tortoise, made up of 8000 catties (4800 kilos) of white rice and 600 catties (360 kilos) of pineapple and mandarin oranges, has otherworldly powers, encouraging the arrival of good fortune while dispelling malignant influences.

In the past, most turtle images provided for qigui were made of rice or a combination of glutinous rice and sugar (these latter are known as fangpian icons). But now there are many other kinds as well, named after the materials used: red-glutinous-rice and rice-pudding turtles; turtles made of piled-up wheat noodles, rice noodles, cookies, steamed buns, cakes, or instant noodles; as well as preserved-date, gelatin, and candy turtles, kept in sturdy "turtle cages" or wrapped in plastic wrap to keep them fresh. The most coveted of all are those turtles made of pure gold.

Going for the gold

Penghu's golden turtles got their start at the Shang Ti Temple. Chairman Chen Heng-fu relates that their temple always used ordinary fangpian (glutinous rice and sugar) tortoises, until 1986 that is. In that year, four local residents who had brought a ten-catty fangpian tortoise home and then struck it rich returned the following year with a repayment of an 800-catty (480 kilo) fangpian tortoise, setting a record for Taiwan. In 1993, a man named Chang Kuei-chou raised the bar to 12,600 catties (about 7500 kilos).

However, in order to support their own weight, such gigantic fangpian tortoises must be made more firm, and as a result the texture is less spongy and they are not so tasty. In addition, not only is there no place to put such an enormous icon should you bring it home, it is also no easy feat to share out or consume in a short time. Therefore, the following year, Chang took the cost of a giant fangpian tortoise, added to it his repayment for having his wishes granted in the previous year, and created a solid gold tortoise of 60 taels (2.25 kilos) of gold, which he donated to Shang Ti Temple. Thus began the great golden tortoise rivalry, with one reaching 228 taels (8.5 kilos) last year.

This year, someone who had a lucky year over the previous year offered the temple 230 taels (8.6 kilos) of gold. The temple decided to break up that amount and make a family of one large and three small golden turtles which would be open to qigui for the public. In front of the temple they even built a clever little landscape garden where the four golden turtles can live a leisurely existence.

The Pei Chi Temple in Suokang Village, the main rival of the Shang Ti Temple, also prides itself on its large gold tortoises. Last year, Chuang Wen-ting, who grew up in Suokang but now runs a deep-sea fishing business in Kaohsiung, brought home a 160-tael (6 kilo). This year he returned with a gigantic golden tortoise of 230 taels.

Recalling last year's qigui process, Chuang, now 51 years old, relates that he had not been back to his old hometown for Lantern Festival in nearly 20 years. Last year he happened to be back at that time, and went by himself to the temple to pay respects. There the idea suddenly occurred to him to join in the qigui activities. Little did he expect that he would throw ten consecutive chengbei, earning him the gold tortoise. If you ask Chuang whether, after taking the icon home, he really did earn a huge amount of money last year, he simply replies: "Living off the sea depends on the quirks of nature. I think that if you just get through safely, then you're ahead."

The case of the missing turtles

In its traditional form, qigui has always been quite a simple matter. You go to any temple, stand facing any one of the small sacred tortoises set out on display, light three incense sticks to respectfully inform the netherworld of your choice, and then cast the divining blocks (two matching wooden blocks shaped like the halves of a cashew nut). If the result is a chengbei (one yin, one yang) then you insert incense sticks in the tortoise to show that it now has an owner. Finally, you register at the service counter, and take the tortoise home, where it holds a place of honor for three days before being eaten. The following year, you make repayment by returning with a new sacred turtle at least two catties heavier than the one you took.

But these days, the conditions to join the qigui for the enormous rice or golden tortoises, which are expensive to make, are much more rigorous. "We had no choice. We had a golden tortoise of 60 taels go, never to return," says Chen Heng-fu of the Shang Ti Temple. A worshipper who took home a golden tortoise, worth NT$1 million, disappeared, along with the icon, when his business failed during the following year. Since then, all kinds of rules have been established for any golden turtle made available for public qigui, to prevent a sacred turtle from becoming a missing turtle.

It is easy enough to participate in the qigui for a golden tortoise: All you have to do is register first. There is no fee, although anyone under 20 must have the permission of their parents. However, the individual lucky enough to win the golden turtle must fulfill one of three conditions before being able to bring it home: pay a full-value deposit in cash, put up an item of equivalent value, or have two businesses and two guarantors take responsibility.

Quite a few people participate in the qigui every year, and there is no shortage of interesting anecdotes. Some clans send several people out in a relay, determined to get the turtle that they want. And once someone threw 16 consecutive chengbei, which is really astonishing.

Besides putting up golden tortoises for qigui, in recent years Penghu temples have really used their imaginations and added things like automobiles and golden horses for people to "appeal" for. Interested persons can cast the divination blocks at NT$300 per throw, and whoever has the most chengbei will drive home in a brand-new sedan. "It's just like buying a lottery ticket!" says one citizen who joined in the fun. According to the account books of the Pei Chi Temple, last year participants purchased about 1000 or so throws, for an income of NT$300,000, so they about broke even.

Seeing the variations in Penghu on the qigui theme, Hsu Yao-pin, who is very interested in Penghu customs, says there has already been a qualitative change. "In the days when people were not materially well off, the tortoise not only represented tranquility and prosperity, but also provided food. Temples did not particularly demand repayment, and people were just happy to have what they considered to be an interest-free loan."

The method used these days of making people pay cash deposits or leave an object of equivalent value reveals that there is no longer much faith between man and deities. Or perhaps it just means that in this era in which people put so much less emphasis on human values, the warmth that existed between people in days gone by has gradually dissipated.

On the walls of the temples are pasted lists of people who have not returned favors for wishes granted, and many people give back nothing more than a pair of mandarin oranges or a rice turtle of a few catties. When you work it out, it's not that they can't afford to repay, but that they simply don't care to, which must leave even divine beings sighing in frustration.

Fortunately, there are still more than a few Penghu local folk with integrity. This year, local notable Cheng Kuang-po successfully "appealed" for the 8000-catty giant rice turtle from Tien Hou Temple, and after Lantern Festival ended, he delivered the rice to low-income households in the county. Moreover, next year he plans to come back with a rice tortoise weighing 10,000 catties.

Visit Penghu for Lantern Festival

In the past, the various major temples organized Lantern Festival activities independently. This year, with the county government's Bureau of Culture taking the lead, a comprehensive tourist handbook was produced. In addition, a special bus was provided at NT$200 per ticket to take visitors around to sites including the fireworks at the San Sheng Temple in Aimen Village, a view from the Kuanyin Pavilion of an international surfing competition, and a home-cooked meal with local residents in Erhkan Village. Or you could go to Pei Chi Temple to participate in the "bombarding the fort" fireworks activity, or see the young men of Wai-an's Shang Ti Temple "rush the temple door" carrying the sedan chair of the deity on their shoulders. Another option was the Ping An (Peace) Bridge in Chihsing. As Wei Ching-yang says: "For the upper part of the bridge we invited Lord Wen Wang to appear, while for the lower part we had the Chi Hsing [Seven Star] Amulet. Also, a Taoist priest went around the bridge 12 times, praying for good fortune for people of each of the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac; it was a very solemn ritual."

Penghu's qigui activities are a high point of the Lantern Festival in Taiwan. It is really worth bringing the whole family there over the "little new year."

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A gelatin penguin, turtles made of cakes, or of glutinous rice and sugar. These adorable (not to mention tasty) items are all symbols of respect that the faithful offer to Matsu.

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(facing page) Passing below the statue of Matsu, goddess of the sea, picking up a long-life peach, and crossing the Chi Hsing Peace Bridge at the Tien Hou Temple (a Grade I historic site) helps people celebrating Lantern Festival get the new year off to a good start.

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At the Shang Ti Temple in Shanshui, this family of golden turtles is a popular attraction.

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Chuang Wen-ting, a son of Penghu, hit ten consecutive chengbei with the divination blocks last year, taking home a 160-tael (6-kilo) auspicious golden tortoise. He thanked the deities for their protection by repaying them with a 230-tael (8.6-kilo) gold turtle.

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This small fangpian tortoise made of glutinous rice and sugar is the oldest traditional type of icon used for the qigui ceremony.

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This enormous rice turtle made up of 6000 catties (3600 kilos) of piled-up bags of uncooked rice is one of the amazing sights typical of Lantern Festival in Penghu.

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The fishing harbor that never sleeps: During the Lantern Festival holiday, all the fishing boats in Wai'an harbor in Hsiyu Rural Township turn on their fishing lights at the same time, lighting up the night sky over Penghu. It is a unique event in Taiwan.