ABSTRACT
Images of, and shrines to, Tudi Gong can be seen almost anywhere on the island of Taiwan. In homes, shops, restaurants, urban neighbourhoods or rural villages, he occupies a place, both literal and imagined, among the people as well as within the territory he is protecting. In the most isolated fields the farmers’ work is ‘watched over’ by the attentive and benevolent Tudi Gong. Even the dead of the community continue to sense his presence by having him placed on the side of their tombs. The sayings: ‘every two or three steps one can see a Tudi Gong temple’ (san bu liang bu ke jian tudi gong miao), or ‘at the beginning and end of each field there is a Tudi Gong’ (tian tou tian wei tudi gong) emphasise the ‘multilocation’ of his presence among the people of Taiwan.
