Hi, let me introduce myself. I’m Wesley a digital nomad from the Netherlands that in 2024 got invited to discover Taiwanese religion and stayed.
Early 2026 I mentioned to Shixiong, the owner of the temple and my mentor, that I had been playing with creating a blog or guide to help tourists navigate Taiwanese temples, learn about the religion and visit other temples than only the few famous ones.
The result is what you’re looking at and I sincerely hope that it helps you experience the temples of Taiwan in a more in-depth way or that you maybe even ask one of the Gods for help. (No you don’t need to convert for this.)
The background story
Late 2024 I travelled back to Taipei to celebrate new year and watch the Taipei 101 fireworks. The room I booked was on the second floor, above the temple that I ended up praying in. At first I had no idea, where most big temples have some kind of map of the altars that you can translate, the small local temples do not.
So all I did was just give the uncles and aunties that visited and often were outside drinking tea my best nihao and that’s it.
Until one day one of the uncles, which I later learned is called Shixiong 師兄 (senior brother) and is the owner of the temple, called me back from the stairs to invite me for dinner at the temple the next evening.
At the dinner someone explained to me in English how to pray in that temple, a guide for which you can find here, and that is how it all started.
Fast forward to Lunar New Year, on new year’s eve I went downstairs for a last prayer after which I got told there would be a big ceremony for the Lunar New Year and I was welcome to join.
From that moment I kept praying, started learning more about Taiwanese religion and Daoism (often getting more confused the more I learned), even looking for temples in other countries to continue praying when I would have to leave Taiwan.
Writing this just after the Lunar New Year in 2026 I have learned more, I learned I need to learn more, and I found my place in this intruiging yet complicated religion. I really hope that I am able to bridge the gap between what the locals in Taiwan know, what Shixiong knows, and the people who visit Taiwan while not speaking fluent Mandarin or Taiwanese.
