Shows of appreciation
Gao Zhenzhong, who works in the finance industry, previously visited Thailand with a group of friends to worship Phra Phrom. Over the years that followed, not only did his company successfully weather the Great Recession, but it even expanded in scale from a hundred people to a thousand, thriving in otherwise troubled times. Eager to repay the favor Phra Phrom had shown him, in 2011 Gao “invited” a statue from Thailand to Changhua’s Tianwei, the biggest center of the flower trade in Taiwan, to be showered with offerings. He even invited a Thai Buddhist master to oversee the consecration ceremony and commissioned an art professor from Tunghai University to lead a team of students through the creation of the statue’s podium. The tributes and ceremonies were all in the Thai style, with offerings of chrysanthemums and carved wooden elephants.
With the statue located in a tourist area, it is visited by masses of people every weekend, with the faithful coming mostly from out of town. As for the fastest turnaround, Gao tells the story of one man who came to seek help recovering a debt from a long-lost friend, and almost as soon as he walked away, he got a call from said friend. He immediately came back to show his appreciation.
The shrine, meanwhile, regularly donates any funds left after expenses to local schools, elderly people living alone, and rural Aboriginal villages, as well as occasionally inviting Thai masters to give believers mystical tattoos. All of this is in order to give back to the community. Every weekend, Thai students studying at National Chung Hsing University dance for the statue in thanks, honored to have the opportunity to serve the Four-Faced Awakened One.
The Phra Phrom shrine in Tianwei, Changhua County, often invites students from Thailand studying in Taiwan to dance for the statue as part of the faithful’s efforts to repay Phra Phrom’s kindness.