Rice Dragon Polyphony: Local practice and the making of land restoration ritual

Anlong Xietu (placating dragons and thanking the earth, hereafter Anlong) is a land-restoration ritual commonly performed after the renovation or rebuilding of temples in northern Taiwan. Han Chinese consider the land not as inert matter, but as a living terrain animated by the movement of qi. Temple construction and the breaking of ground may sever the dragon's veins and release sha qi, or baleful forces embedded in the earth. In traditional Anlong rituals, a “rice dragon” fashioned from rice and other ritual materials is used to welcome the Dragon Deity back into place, while a “White Tiger” carries away the earth’s malevolent forces. The ritual brings together Zhengyi Daoist rites of blessing and propitiation with the consecratory and exorcistic techniques of the Lüshan tradition, exemplifying the distinctive conjunction of Daoist and ritual-method traditions, locally described as the “two traditions of Dao and Fa” (daofa ermen). Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the making of the rice dragon has become increasingly elaborate, placing greater emphasis on the collaboration among materials, embodied skill, and the circulation of qi, as well as on the sensory experience of participants. Anlong, therefore, is not simply a traditional ritual, but a public religious practice through which relationships among humans, deities, land, and community are continually reconstituted.