Top Ten Sites to See in Cebu – The Taoist Temple

Top Ten Sites to See – The Taoist Temple

Temple ‘open to everybody’

In Chinese temple, all races are welcome to pray and seek blessings

A TYPICAL altar in a Chinese temple has about 20 deities facing east.

But regardless of the number of deities, the Chinese, whether Taoists or Buddhists, maintain that there is only one supreme God who takes on different names for each culture.

It should not matter that practicing Chinese Catholics visit Taoist temples to honor them.

“There is only one God. Mohammed, Buddha and Jesus Christ are the same,” said Alejandro Tiu, board member of the Philippine Taoist Temple in Beverly Hills.

They maintain that the temple is not solely for Chinese worshippers as all races are welcome to pray.

James Tio, the temple’s caretaker, even noted that only one percent of their visitors are Chinese while 98 percent are Filipinos.

“But they do not just come here to see the view. They also come here to pray,” he said.

Tio noted that the Filipinos have learned the Chinese ways as he often meets Filipinos who arrive at the temple to seek blessings for weddings, engagements, bar exams, business and baptisms.

But for Buddhist Marilyn Tjioe, she believes this is merely because the Taoist temple is a tourist spot.

Tjioe pays her respects at the Phu Sian Temple, just a few meters away from the Taoist temple in Sudlon, Lahug, Cebu City.

While there are many similarities between Taoism and Buddhism, Tjioe said Buddhists are strict vegetarians and do not harm animals.

This is because Buddhists believe in reincarnation and that a human soul may take on the form of an animal in the next life.

The Chinese note, though, that they celebrate the New Year just like the Filipinos do.

“It is important that you spend it with your family,” Tio said.

Just as Filipinos have adopted Chinese practices, the Chinese families in the country have also followed Filipino beliefs such as Christianity.

Rooted

Tjioe said Christianity, especially Catholicism, is deeply rooted in the Philippines.

It would be difficult to separate Christianity from their daily lives when their children were sent to Christian schools and brought up among Christians, she pointed out.

The Chinese are known as the inventors of gunpowder.

But for Tiu, the Filipinos have made more destructive things out of fireworks, pointing out the huge number of firecracker-related incidents.

“In China, we do not have things like super lolo. Some of these things kill. There are small firecrackers that we can hold in our hands and would not do any damage,” he said.

In China, the holiday is more popularly known as the Spring Festival.

While the celebration lasts up to 15 days, Chinese-Filipino families only have one day to celebrate the holiday.

However, there are just a few things the Chinese try not to fail to do or else they receive bad luck for the rest of the year.

At the Philippine Chinese Spiritual Temple, Lee Eng Kiong hangs Chinese ponkans or kiet on the doorways and windows to ward off bad spirits.

He said there is less spending because times are hard.

Hard times

“We have to be practical. Others are having a hard time and it would be wasteful to spend it on too many celebrations while others are going hungry,” Lee said.

True enough, the temples are simply decorated though the same intricate patterns and colors are still evident in their buildings.

But temple keepers believe the lack of lavish spending will not stop them from flocking to the temples to pay their respects to the gods.

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By Mia E. Abellana