At the altar of Wenchanggong, the gods with grim faces looked hot under the lights

In addition to Imperial Lord Wen Chang, there are five other gods enshrined at the Wenchanggong Temple in Taipei, and each god resides on its own altar. The god in the photo is one of them. The god in the photo is one of them. He is standing in the middle of the altar with a grim face and a large incense burner in front of him, and judging from the number of incense sticks standing in the burner, it seemed that the place was constantly visited by worshippers, although it happened to be deserted at the moment.

On the wall flanking the incense burner, there were a lot of small lights. These were called "blessing lights" and were dedicated by worshippers. Each light was inscribed with the name of the person who dedicated it, and it was said that if you dedicated one, your family would be blessed as well. The myriad of blessing lights shone quietly and brightly in the deserted temple.

At first glance, it looked like the altar would be very hot with all these lights, but it wasn't. The lights were made of LEDs, so you didn't feel the heat even if you were standing close to them. But in the past, it would have been made with incandescent bulbs, and even further back, it must have been made with candles. If that were the case, the gods enshrined in the altar would have been very hot. It must have been like a steam bath inside the hall where countless candles were lit.