Innovating Religion: Where There Is a Need, There Is a God

Evan Osnos, a staff writer for The New Yorker who spent eight years in China, told a story on NPR’s Fresh Air in 2014:

I lived in a neighborhood in Beijing that had a whole bunch of temples right next to each other. And oftentimes it seemed like people were hedging their bets 'cause they would go from the Tibetan Buddhist temple. And they'd go across the street to the Confucius temple. And then on the way home, they might stop at a Protestant church just to be safe. But they were looking for answers about what it means to be Chinese in this day and age.

In his book, which won the 2014 National Book Award for Nonfiction, Osnos defined the current era in China as the “age of ambition,” the age when the Chinese people are chasing fortune, truth, and faith. They are on a quest to find meaning in their lives.

A Chinese temple, the Temple of Grandma, located in a remote mountain area in Hebei Province could be seen as a perfect example of this age of questing.

Recently, the Temple of Grandma gained sudden fame nationwide. Many were surprised by the temple’s popularity and – most importantly – its innovation: In order to cater to people’s various spiritual needs, the temple simply invented relevant gods, as needed, for people to worship.

What is the Temple of Grandma?

The Temple of Grandma was reported to the public by Xu Teng – a Chinese PhD student in the School of Architecture at Tsinghua University, one of the most prominent and elite universities in China.

In his personal social media account on WeChat, Xu published an article titled “The Temple of His Grandma.” In Chinese, “his grandma” are euphemized curse words, so the article immediately drew in thousands of views and reposts, as people were curious: “What is the Temple of Grandma?”

In fact, the worship of grandmothers is quite common in the central plains of China – Hebei Province in particular – and there are many famous grandmas in local folk religion. For example, Grandma Fox is one of the many holy grandmas that is worshiped among Chinese, and stories of fox possession could be found not only in China, but also in Korea and Japan.

However, the grandma enshrined in the Temple of Grandma has nothing to do with foxes. This particular grandma reportedly saved a Chinese prince’s life two thousand years ago; when the prince became emperor, or Son of Heaven, he granted this grandma a title of goddess and built the temple to worship her.

The story of the Temple of Grandma is a typical Chinese fairytale that can hardly be traced back in history. Yet, what is stunning about the temple is not its origin but its wild imagination, grassroots innovation, and blunt pragmatism.

Xu Teng said in a presentation in YiXi (China’s version of a TED talk): “The temple’s religious atmosphere [is] so tense that it’s very hard to find a similar place in the whole country. Without any preparation, you’d see the statues of gods in every corner of the mountain.”

Xu didn’t exaggerate.

A large number of statues could be found under a tree, above a wall, within the mud, along the road up to the top of the mountain, or in shabby shelters. All the statues looked dirty, coarse, and ugly, covered by ragged, but colorful decorations. 

“What made me bend my knees was,” said Xu with admiration, “a unique god in green, the local people’s biggest religious innovation.”

Xu showed a picture of a statue of a god holding a black pole: “I thought he was holding a stick, but when I took a close look, I found that he was holding a steering wheel… and this is the God of Car.”

Next to the God of Car was a mural depicting the god blessing cars driven between mountains.

A Good Business

Other than the God of Car, there are the gods of school, wealth, baby delivery, business, weather, health, safety, love (by the way, in addition to the traditional Chinese God of Matchmaking, the Temple invented a God of Getting-back-together-with-an-ex to target specific pilgrims) and whatever god people could think of.

One manager of the Temple explained:

Grandma was born in a peasant family, so she would bless everyone no matter if they are rich or poor, highborn or lowborn… Whatever you wish for, you’d find we have a god for you… and whatever god you need, we’d build one for you.

Since the Temple of Grandma takes such good care of its pilgrims’ needs, the pilgrims would go day and night and offer sincere respects, as well as huge donations despite the temple’s shabbiness. It is said that the temple, which is open 24 hours-a-day, hosted more than one million visitors over 15 days during its annual temple fair, and it could make a total profit of 40 million RMB ($6 million) in every half month.

Facing the temptations of huge profit, almost all peasants living in the village where the temple is located have joined the business. The statues of various gods are managed by local peasants.

Criticism vs. Tolerance

Immediately after the Temple of Grandma grabbed national attention, criticism of the temple followed. Many expressed distaste for the temple’s vulgarity and shabbiness. Some condemned the temple for blasphemy.

On the contrary, Xu Teng argued against such criticisms:

[The temple] actually reflects our current society… It grows so strong and lively out of our soil… It has been there many years and local people enjoy it and feel good about it. Then why do you have the right to judge it and say it’s ugly? The temple provide[s] some spiritual comfort and an emotional outlet to some local people… Many citizens could satisfy their spiritual needs in cities, but who would take care of these people living in the countryside and in the bottom of the society?

Xu’s analysis seemed to correspond to reality. A female pilgrim in her 60s explained to the reporter why she went to the Temple of Grandma: “Whenever I have any agony in life, I come here to worship. And I’d forget all my agony when I go down the mountain.”