Abstract
As Hobsbawn and Ranger (1983) pointed out, tradition is not only something from the past; it is reproduced and invented in contemporary social and cultural contexts. Focusing on explicating this thesis from the perspective of convention, I have studied two ritual actions in the Baishatun Mazu pilgrimage of Taiwan. The first is the palanquin performance, which is regarded as a performance-oriented ritual, in which people believe that the goddess Mazu descends to the palanquin and makes carriers move through her pulling force. I divide the palanquin performance into two categories: the palanquin oracle that guides the pilgrimage odyssey and the performance for free interpretations. The former contains more conventional forms and meanings in the performance than the latter, albeit both performance categories involve the human interaction and the negotiation of meaning during and after the performance act. The palanquin performance in past pilgrimage journeys places an emphasis on enacting the palanquin oracle to guide the pilgrim’s excursion. The frequency of the performance is largely increased on present journeys, and new forms and interpretations of the performance emerge as well. Drawing on the notion of ritual experience, I see the pilgrimage journey on foot as another kind of ritual action, in which the pilgrim''s experience of walking heightens and produces religious meaning. While following Mazu''s pilgrimage journey, pilgrims not only place their own bodies in exhausting circumstances like strong sunshine or heavy rain, but also depend on their goddess''s protection to release the physical pain resulting from the difficult journey. Both the pilgrim''s experience of walking and the carrier''s experience of the palanquin performance is viewed as the theophany of their goddess. In this sense, the transcendent power of the pilgrimage representation, originally explicated by Sangren (1991, 1993), can result from the pilgrim''s physical experience on the journey (cf. Quintero 2002). The journey on foot was inevitable in the past when transport vehicles were not available, whereas the pilgrims walking on today''s excursion are ”pushing their bodies to a state of physical crisis.” This ”physical sacrifice” carries an air of being the indispensable testimony to the pilgrim''s belief in Mazu. Thus the journey on foot is a contemporary reproduction of the convention from the past, whose reproduction involves new resources and meanings. Paradoxically, the reproduction and the invention of the tradition in the present have ironically announced the death of the past.