Taipei City Government

On December 26, Songshan Fengtian Temple held the incense burner-sealing ceremony to join the ranks of Taipei City’s certified environmental education venues. The temple having received its Environmental Education Venue Certificate in December, the temple culture demonstrated through the institution shows elements of diversity and environmental awareness.

According to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), temples are important religious centers for Taiwan and taking on important roles to fulfill the spiritual needs for locals. The agency believes that working with religious establishments works well to promote conservation by tapping into the ranks of the faithful.

Based on this principle, DEP has collaborated with Fengtian Temple for a long period, helping the temple establish its environmental education center in 2013. In 2014 and 2015, the project expanded to include employee environmental education program. It also joined hands with DEP to hold extracurricular environmental training camps for colleges and universities in 2016 and 2017.

For its part, Songshan Fengtian Temple has also joined the movement of reducing the number of incense burners on temple premises to 4 over the past several years, as well as modifying the length and ingredients of incense used to reduce emission. During the ceremony on December 26, the temple further cut back the number of incense burners to two to reduce emission and safeguard the health of visitors.

DEP pointed out that the total number of certified environmental education venues within Taipei City currently stands at 16 – the highest in the nation. The agency encourages the public to take advantage of these facilities to learn more about efforts in protecting our environment and merging best practices into their daily life.