A woman places sandalwood incense into a large tripod incense burner that is flanked on both sides by intricate dragon shaped handles. The heavy bronze vessel faces Qingshan Wang (King of the Green Mountain) in the Monga (or, Bangka) Qingshan Temple in Taipei.
Religious ceremonies are individual, personal, and private rituals as well as public, shared, and communal rites. They involve fruits, food, flowers, money, candles, prostration, music, song, incense, incantations, and other offerings and prayers, bestowing respect and honor on mortals and immortals alike.
As a communion with the spiritual world, they engage all of the senses as well as the sensual. In essence, they invite revelers to experience a higher sense of being and belonging – of the divine – if but fleetingly.