The Wangye Festival (南關線三大廟王醮暨遊社) of Tainan City's Nanguanxian region (南關線) has been registered by the Ministry of Culture as an important folk custom. On Nov, 17, the 21st day of the 10th lunar month, Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun presented certificates to the three temples involved.
This festival is the 20th nationally recognized important folk custom, as well as Tainan City's fifth registered item of intangible cultural heritage. The three major temples involved in the festival are Shanxi Temple (關廟山西宮), Renshou Temple (歸仁仁壽宮), and Baoxi Daitian Temple (保西代天府, also known as Daren Temple, 大人廟), all of which are located in the Nanguanxian region, which spans the Rende (仁德), Gueiren (歸仁), and Guanmiao (關廟) districts.
The Wangye (or "Royal Lords") Festival tradition began in the late Qing dynasty in response to a plague, and involved processions of deity statues in sedan chairs to ward off disease and bring about safety and prosperity. In celebration of its successful reconstruction, the Shanxi Temple held a five-day worship ritual and procession ceremony, and this grew to become a unique reccurring ceremony for the region, with leadership changing hands between the three temples every 12 years. From 2015 to 2018, however, the three temples took consecutive turns holding the festival, vastly increasing the visibility of this folk tradition.
Minister Cheng remarked that this is the first time the Ministry has registered three joint preservers for the same heritage category. The three neighboring temples go hand in hand and have always held the festivals together, including up to 50 tīn-thâu (陣頭) procession teams. This region is known for their Songjiang (宋江陣) and Golden Lion (金獅陣) battle array performances. The temple management communities also have their own social structure, management, system of membership, and leadership elections, all of which are intertwined with master-apprentice relationships and have a profound holding in their artistic and cultural beliefs.
During the five-day Wangye Festival, followers of the three temples will follow a vegetarian diet, and purchase lanterns and incense alters from the temples. Every important step, from Making the Boat (舟參), the Welcoming Ceremony (請王, also known as the Water Ceremony, 取水), and the Procession Parade (遶境), to the Departure Ceremony (送王) see all three temples participate and bring out their grand procession teams. This highlights the unity and cohesiveness of the local residents as they gather together to carry out the festival.
Cheng also mentioned that Tainan's cultural assets have enjoyed excellent ongoing preservation, such as the Tainan Shan-Shang Garden and Old Waterworks Museum restoration project, which aims to preserve an important part of the modernization of sanitary engineering from the Japanese colonial era. She explained that over the past three years, the Ministry has subsidized Tainan in its promotion of the "Reconstruction of Historical Scenes" initiative and other tangible cultural assets such as historic sites and historical buildings, providing total funding of over NT$1 billion.
The Minister further remarked that the budget for the preservation of intangible cultural assets has seen annual increases, and next year the Ministry of Culture will invest some NT$280 million into intangible cultural assets — twice the budget from previous years. This highlights the importance the Ministry places on intangible cultural assets. Additionally, in the past three years the Ministry has recognized four important folk traditions and registered eight "Living National Treasures" to help preserve important traditional performing arts and crafts. Starting next year, the Ministry will also support local tīn-thâu folk art performance culture with an independent budget for preserving local cultural activities, she added.