Taiwan Religious Culture Map

The Ghost Grappling Competition is only one part of Toucheng’s Ghost Festival. The schedule of events includes:
1. The 1^st day of the 7^th lunar month: festival opening; prayers to the heavenly gods and deceased ancestors.
2. The 15^th day of the 7^th lunar month: the fanpeng (a tower shorter than the gupeng topped with a single spire) ceremony; scripture readings to free wandering spirits from purgatory.
3. The 25^th day of the 7^th lunar month: the invocation of the presence of the gods at the festival.
4. The 26^th day of the 7^th lunar month: the dipper lamp-lighting ceremony performed by Taoist priests at the temple altar. (The dipper-shaped lamps bearing surnames of clans are used in Taoist ritual to pray for family blessings).
5. The 27^th day of the 7^th lunar month: sacrificial offerings to ancestors during a pilgrimage to the badazhuang (the twenty-four villages of modern-day Toucheng Township as well as Yushi and Baiyun Villages in neighboring Jiaoxi Township).
6. The 28^th day of the 7^th lunar month: inspection tour and lighting of the water lanterns.
7. The 29^th day of the 7^th lunar month, 11:00 p.m.: the Ghost Grappling Competition (a preliminary competition is first held at the fanpeng before the official competition begins).

To contribute to the Qianggu festival, villagers from Toucheng Township work jointly to construct the bamboo trestlework towers, called guzhan; the process builds community spirit. Because the guzhan are thirteen meters tall and offerings such as chicken, duck, pork, rice dumplings, calamari, rice noodles, shrimp, and crab are tied to the top, they must be firmly fixed. Materials used to secure the guzhan include rattan, nylon cord, plastic cord, and metal wire.

The primary towers used at the Toucheng Ghost Grappling are the fanpeng (small tower) and the gupeng (large tower). The fanpeng is also called the beggar’s tower. Basket upon basket of white rice is placed on the fanpeng for the Taoist priest to perform the ritual multiplication of the food so that all hungry spirits can eat their fill.

The gupeng, or large tower, is built for the official Ghost Grappling Competition. Structurally, it can be divided vertically into three parts. The bottom section is comprised of a support scaffolding made of twelve Chinese fir pillars measuring approximately thirty-three meters long each. A platform known as a daotapeng built at the top of the pillars increases the difficulty of completing the competition. Above the daotapeng are thirteen bamboo trestlework spires called guzhan that measure approximately eleven meters tall each and have offerings such as chicken, duck, and pork attached. Topping each guzhan are a gold medal and a wind banner. To make things even harder, the pillars are greased, so participants can to experience first-hand how difficult it is to free lost and wandering souls from suffering.

The Toucheng Ghost Grappling begins at 11 p.m., at which point each Qianggu team of five is assigned a pillar and given a hemp rope as a climbing aid. At the sound of the gong, the participants wrap their arms around their pillar and begin the climb upward. Because the pillar is greased, the teams must rely on teamwork, clambering over teammates and standing on one another’s shoulders to work their way up. The teammate who reaches the top of the pole can only get up onto the tower by performing a pullover—a gymnastic technique of swinging the body backwards around a horizontal bar feet first—as he swings onto the platform upside-down. This is the most difficult and dramatic stage of the Ghost Grappling Competition as well as the one in which participants are most prone to sustain injuries from falls. Finally, after scaling one of the spires, the first person to cut loose the binding cords and capture the flag and gold medal at the very top is declared the winner.