Each year during the Dragon Boat Festival, Tai O’s three fishermen’s associations—Pa Teng Hong, Sin Yu Hong and Hap Sim Tong—hold a religious water parade. Their dragon boats tow sacred sampans carrying deity statues through the village waterways.
From the journal
Tai O’s Dragon Boat Water Parade
In Tai O’s ritual procession, dragon boats tow sacred sampans carrying deity statues through the village waterways.
In this district · Islands ↗Three associations, one water route
Gathering and returning the deities
On the morning before the festival, association members row to four Tai O temples and receive statues of Yeung Hou, Tin Hau, Kwan Tai and Hung Shing. They bring the statues to their association halls for worship. On festival day, the statues travel by sacred sampan through the water again, then return to their temples that afternoon.
A ritual carried through generations
The Intangible Cultural Heritage Office says the water parade has been inherited for more than a century. Its inscription on the third national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2011 recognizes a living ritual maintained by Tai O’s fishermen’s associations and tied to the village’s waterways.