A man seeking divination examines the writing on a bamboo stick at the Baoan Temple in Taipei. Before consulting the instructions on the slender stick, he first kneels down in front of an altar table with offerings such as flowers, fruits, and piles of spirit money, prays for assistance, and drops a pair of crescent moon-shaped blocks on the floor of the temple several times.
After supplicating the gods and receiving an answer that he finds acceptable to the particular problem he has posed to them, he proceeds to a bamboo cylinder on the left side of the altar. Inside the receptacle are dozens of sticks, each about 24 inches in length, and each with instructional text in Chinese characters to help worshipers accurately predict future events.
He jostles the sticks three or four times before selecting one from the container at random and noting the information it contains. He then walks over to a board displayed on the left side wall behind him and finds the appropriate small strip of printed pink paper that corresponds to the number on the stick.
There are 60 pads of these pink slips printed with couplets of classical verse and each bears a message or teaching that petitioners perceive to be the deity’s answer to the questions they are seeking advice on. Although the doctrine of predestination is a matter open to dispute, prayer sticks remain a commonly practiced method of divination among people in Taiwan today.