ABSTRACT
Despite his prevalence and popularity among the people of Taiwan – and throughout Chinese societies, Tudi Gong seems to have been given a disproportionately small place in anthropological and sinological studies. The attempts which have been made mainly mention or describe place-based cultural practices associated with the cult,1 or engage in a classical sinological overview of it through the history of Chinese civilisation and its links with the cult of the land in ancient China.2 While the former normally favours a synchronic approach, stressing the association of specific places with their Tudi Gongs and the link that these have with local histories and oral traditions, the latter naturally prefers a diachronic one, mainly quoting and discussing those Chinese classical texts which, according to the authors, may shed some light on the complicated historical development of the cult.
