One of Taipei’s most famous religious sites- and one of its biggest tourist draws- is a place people here often picture shrouded in incense smoke. But starting Friday, that image is no longer an accurate one. The temple is now, for the most part, an incense free-zone.
Longshan Temple is one of Taipei’s iconic sights, a place that attracts crowds of believers and crowds of tourists alike. It has seen a lot in the 281 years since its founding – but nothing quite like what it saw on Friday. The incense smoke that has filled the temple’s halls and corridors for centuries had largely disappeared.
Friday is day one of a new policy at the temple banning worshippers from lighting incense. It’s the culmination of a drive by the temple to reduce incense-burning that began in 2017. That initial move cut the amount of harmful particulate matter in the air.
Temple Chairman Huang Shu-wei says that at times, levels of PM2.5 fine particulate matter could be up to 88 times higher than at Xingtian Gong- a famous Taipei temple where incense has been banned for some years.
After reducing the amount of incense it burns, the temple decided to go one step further and stop visitors from burning incense altogether. The move is intended to improve air quality, the surrounding environment, and the health of worshippers.
Incense won’t disappear completely from Longshan Temple, though. The temple itself will still light a small amount each day on behalf of all worshippers. The temple says the real key to securing the protection of the gods comes not from incense but from good deeds.