rtheast Taiwan. Put up by a temple of land gods or tu-di-gong, they complain it now has been burdened with too many unwanted images of local deities, including the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. "Please take them back," the bulletins urge.
Yang Liang, who takes care of the small Suxi Temple, said yesterday he used to tend to only five land gods, the lowest deities in folk Taoism. Last February, Yang said, he found two statues of Avalokitesvera, or the Goddess of Mercy, abandoned in front of his temple in west Suao.
"Ours is a small altar, only large enough for the five land gods," Yang pointed out. So he put the two images on a table before the altar. Sheltering the abandoned Goddesses of Mercy probably encouraged those who wanted to get rid of their deities to dump them at the temple. Local faithful never hesitate to dump the deities who fail to make their wishes come true.
Altogether 12 statues, ranging from Avalokitesvera to Third Prince or San-tai-zhi, were left at the door of the temple Monday.
"I can't take care of that many gods," Yang protested. The only way out was to call on those who have dumped them to take them back.
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