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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the new books network.
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B
This is the nordic asia podcast.
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A
Welcome to the Nordic Asia Podcast, a collaboration sharing expertise on Asia across the Nordic region. My name is Kenneth Bohnelson. I am a social anthropologist based in Oslo, where I also direct the center for South Asian Democracy. Who is Shennong, the Divine Farmer, and how can he help us understand the intricate relationships between spirituality, science and environmentalism in Taiwan today? These questions are central to new research by Koen Wellens and Mettehalsko Hansen, who are both professors of China Studies in Oslo. Their work on Shennong and environmentalism in Taiwan was published in March 2026 in a new edited book titled Religion and Ecological Crises Responses from Asia by Leiden University Press. Kuhn Wellens joins us today in this episode to tell us more about the dynamics of spirituality and environmental action as it plays out in and around our Divine Farmer Temple in Taiwan. Kuhn, welcome to the podcast.
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B
Thank you, Kenneth.
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A
So I think, I think we should maybe start with the basics. I mean, who is Shennong the Divine Farmer?
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B
Shennong, literally translated as you mentioned into Divine Farmer. But he has many names. One of his other names is the God of the five Grains. And according to traditional legend in China, he's also known as the Fire Emperor, which is one of the two mythical ancestors of the Chinese people. So because of the many things he did, many, many exploits, inventions, other contributions to Chinese civilization, he is regarded as a so called cultural hero. And he became deified. So he became a God known as the Chinese God of Agriculture. Chinese people believe that he has invented agriculture and taught the Chinese people how to use a plow, how to use oxen, but also how to domesticate animals in general. He learned the Chinese people also to grow and drink tea. And he's even credited with invented into it, having invented trade and musical instruments. Importantly, he's also seen as the founder of Chinese herbal medicine. And a famous herbal pharmaceutical handbook compiled in the first or second century bears his name. According to a legend, by tasting all the different plants, he found out which ones could be used as a cure for which disease, but also which plants were poisonous. Even in his life as a human being, he had some superhuman traits. For example, the skin of his stomach was transparent, so he could see how eating each plant affected his body. In case it went bad and a plant turned out to be poisonous, he quickly ate an antidote and it survived. Actually, one of the reasons he is worshipped today is that he is believed to have died as a human because he ate a poisonous plant but could not find an antidote in time. So you could say he offered himself for humanity. And that is what people should be grateful for. Traditionally is worshiped by farmers to assist them in providing suitable weather. Weather conditions, like in Taiwan, is especially worshiped by the Chinese Hakka people, which is a subgroup of the Chinese people. There were later migrants coming to the island who had to farm the leftover land that was less fertile and who needed more divine help in trying to live from agriculture. Today, most people worshiping the divine farmer in Taiwan, though, do so for his medicinal powers, Often by getting advice through the help of a medium who communicates directly with the divine farmer. Or by divination, that is, you blindly pick a small card with a text on which then will be given to a temple herbalist who then will put a herbal remedy up for you so you can get better.
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A
As I mentioned in the introduction, this study of Shennong in Taiwan, it forms part of a bigger collection, a book with case studies from different Asian countries, including also India and China, that both, as we know, face enormous environmental challenges. Why is Taiwan, do you think, a relevant case for studying religious responses to environmental concerns?
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B
Yeah, the short answer would be because there just are so many cases in Taiwan of religious organizations that have directed their focus on environmental issues, whether they are Buddhist, Taoist, or several of the popular religions. So we have a lot to study. The obvious question then would be why? Why is that the case? And according to us, there are three or maybe four important reasons. You could say, first of all, as you mentioned with India and China, also Taiwan, but then a few decades earlier, has gone through a similar period of heavy industrialization which resulted in extensive pollution of air, water, soil, and people are suffering from that today. So you could say Taiwanese people absolutely feel the need to address these challenges. The second reason could be that Taiwan is probably, I mean, and that's what they say in many measurements, one of China's most well functioning democracy. They always get very high on top on the democracy index and stuff like that. So it has a very active civil society and at the same time a very strong tolerance for religious diversity. That means society offers good opportunities for getting organized to address the challenges. And then the third reason we found that precisely because Taiwan is religiously so diverse and at the same time a modern society where people choose their religion rather than being born into it, you could say that religious organizations have to adapt to stay relevant and address new issues such as environmental degradation or climate change. You can say religious organizations have to compete on the religious market to win over customers and environmental issues would be one point to win. Finally, and this is related to Taiwan's contested status as an independent country, the government is keen to support organizations, religious or secular, to go global and connect to international networks. It wants Taiwan to be seen by the rest of the world and preferably in a positive light, be it as a model democracy, a champion of human rights, protection of gender equality, or in this case, environmental action.
- [06:39]
A
I'm also curious to know more about the role of these local community temples that I know figures quite prominently in your work. Are they somehow different from Buddhist or Taoist temples? I mean, you mentioned this sort of religious diversity and plurality. Are they different in any particular kind of way?
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B
Yeah, I mean, for our study, the most relevant difference is probably that at least Buddhism and to some extent also Taoism, is institutionalized to a much larger extent than the different forms of popular religions you find in many local community temples in Taiwan. That means that they have a more organized and therefore more rigid liturgy, for example, more rigid written doctrine, and more rigid system of education of priesthood. So there's no doubt that several large Buddhist organizations in Taiwan now also focus on environmental issues. But they need to put in a larger effort to make these adaptations so that they tally with Buddhist teachings. One Buddhist organization does this, for example, by holding that sorting and recycling waste is a way to obtain good karma and therefore obtain a better rebirth. Then there's another Taiwanese Buddhist organization, for example, that is focused on meditation mainly, that admonishes that people should. Instead of imagining the Buddhist concept of a pure land in heaven, which is important for this kind of Buddhism, they should try not to imagine this as some kind of thing to obtain which is not visible or seeable or touchable, but they should try to establish this here on earth, meaning that they should live a life which is environmentally sustainable. But local community temples, they're not part of larger institutionalized systems, so they have much more flexibility, and they can be responsive to the changing needs of local people which the temple is serving. For example, when the people suffer from ever more frequent and stronger typhoons or they get sick because of air pollution, they hope to get help from the divine farmer.
- [08:37]
A
So if I understand this correctly, I mean the fact that these community temples first and foremost cater to the needs of these local communities, that's also what makes them a useful institution for addressing precisely these local needs or issues that are felt as being locally important. And this, of course, includes environmental issues as well. Could you tell us something more about how these divine farmer temples and also the Worship of the divine farmer. More concretely connects to environmentalism in Taiwan today.
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B
If you go and look at what these temples publish now online. Or in printed pamphlets. You get at when you visit the temple. And that's one of the ways we learned also. But also by talking to people working in these temples. The divine farmer is presented now. As the ancestor of human ecology. Sure, they didn't know the word human ecology Many thousand years ago. But that's the way it's presented now today. So they do this by saying that his contribution to mankind. Has been to provide humans with perfect living conditions here. While at the same time upholding a sustainable balance with nature. So it's not using nature, but it's using nature in a sustainable way. So worshipping the divine farmer. Is, you could say, a way to reconnect With a more harmonious relationship with nature. Which apparently has been lost now. While we did not see Direct involvement. With environmental movements in Taiwan. One of the temples which we studied quite extensively. Was engaged with growing ecological tea, for example. Or advising the local government. To make it mandatory. To produce in an ecological sustainable way. Another temple we visited had, for example, an ecological herb garden. But then, because temples and deities. The deities they accommodate. Are there to cater to and protect the local people. They do sometimes have to become more actively engaged in society. And do the job. For example, one of the temples we visited in the south of the island. Is quite famous in Taiwan. For its mobilizing role in environmental protests. In the 1990s, when the government wanted to add a new plant. To the oil refinery. Which was situated next to the village. The villagers protested quite violently. But they were supported by the local divine farmer temple. Who gave them spiritual and moral support. So it was not only the temple as an institution. Who joined the protest. But the villagers felt they were justified to protest. Because they received positive answers by the divine farmer. Through divination rituals. You cast some small wooden pieces. You ask a question, Cast small wooden pieces. And the way they fall, you can see if you get a positive, a negative, or a answer. When they ask, should we protest against this? The small pieces of wood fell in such a way. That they said it was a positive answer. So they should go and protest. At the same time, there were also some women. Who got dreams. Where the divine farmer talked to them directly. And said they should not accept this. And should go and protest. Actually, it took many years before the government finally gave in. And that was already some years after the establishment of democracy, I think it was. The last Protest was in 2004 when they finally closed down the refinery.
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A
It's interesting to hear how, I mean, how important the spiritual component is in all of this. But I also noticed that in the subtitle of your chapter, and also, I mean, the way you write about Chenon, you also stress science. Where does science come into the picture? And more generally, how do these Divine Farmer temples navigate the sort of relationship between spirituality, science, science, spirituality, which we sometimes see as presented as if they were in some kind of opposition? How is this sort of dealt with in the temple context?
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B
This was also one of the interesting findings of our research. So one of the temples that we studied in more details at very close connection through Taiwanese academics and artists. Actually it was through Taiwanese academics that we got in contact with this temple. The temple organized lectures, conferences, musical performances, exhibitions, often on topics related to environmental issues. And then many of the participants were the volunteers working in the temple. And then of course also the worship was going there. So you could say in this way that the temple provided a platform where science and spirituality could meet and complement each other. As the historian Prasenji Diwara, whose work has inspired a project that resulted in this volume, has argued, in order to motivate people to address issues such as global warming, science can bring us closer to reach the goal of a sustainable world by telling us what is happening and what we should do. But it won't be enough. So religion, he says, and especially then Asian religious religions, according to him, can help us bridge what he calls the last mile to reach this goal. So in this way, science and spirituality can be called complementary. They don't compete. So we might be convinced by the science, but we need the moral incentive to do the right thing to help achieve the goal of a sustainable world. The volunteers and other users of the temple, they learn about global warming, how to reduce their CO2 emissions, their footprint, through participating in top notch academic lectures. But the relationship goes both ways. Taiwanese academics are attracted to popular religion, as you could say, a culturally appropriate means to mobilize society in addressing these environmental issues. The that they are concerned with because they are studying them.
- [14:32]
A
I mean, following from this, could I maybe push you to zoom out a little bit or maybe to tell us something about the significance of this kind of initiative? I mean, we are dealing with local temples engaged in local affairs that are affecting local communities on the island nation state of Taiwan. That is, after all, in the bigger Asian context, a rather small country. Does the Divine Farmer have any role to play beyond Taiwan?
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B
It surely has a potential beyond Taiwan. The worship of the divine farmer is very limited today in mainland China because it was considered a form of superstition by the Communist Party and therefore not protected under the law of religious freedom. I mean, Communists don't like religion, but in China they didn't forbid religion. They just made this distinction between superstitious forms of religion and acceptable forms of religion. And the worship of the divine farmer was considered one of these superstitious forms of religion. So it was suppressed. But this has changed in recent years now because the Communist Party is now promoting so called traditional culture to strengthen Chinese nationalism. As you know, the Chinese party is not voted in as in the democratic system. They have to somehow legitimate their holding on to power. And one of the way by doing is saying that they will grant us of a strong Chinese nation and therefore they push for Chinese nationalism which they then will lead the way. It's supposed to be most, most effective for them. So now we see, we start seeing also Chinese religion, religious traditions, those who were still practiced in Taiwan and even developed in Taiwan, are now considered by the Chinese Communist Party as a useful way to promote closer ties between Taiwan and the mainland. And in this way they can then contribute to the Communist Party's goal of unification with Taiwan, which is one of what is also part of this whole nationalist discourse in Taiwan, that the, the motherland should be united with Taiwan. So in the mainland they are starting to restore temples which are specifically dedicated to divine farmers. But also they establish so called research organizations specially focused on either the divine farmers or other deities which are still worshipped in Taiwan and not worshiped anymore in the mainland. So hoping that they in this way can attract Taiwanese worshipers who then go and make pilgrimage to the homeland of the divine farmer or any other deity actually that is still worshipped in Taiwan, but have their roots in the mainland. So the point is again, this works both ways. Traditional Chinese popular religions that have taken an environmental turn have now, at least theoretically the possibility to influence 1.4 billion Chinese people on the mainland. So the mainland, which is one of the largest producers of climate gases, we must admit we are nowhere near a revival of the worshipping of the divine farmer, who would have then turned into a divine ecologist in China. But nevertheless, such a development is not entirely speculative. We have seen that other Taiwanese religious organizations, such as the two Buddhist organizations I mentioned earlier, have now been firmly established on the mainland and are gradually spreading their environmental message. Actually, one of the other chapters in this book is looking into one of these Buddhist organizations activities in mainland China.
- [18:14]
A
This is really fascinating. Kuhn Wellens thank you so much for joining us for this conversation about the Divine Farmer and spiritual environmentalism in Taiwan. The research we have been discussing in this episode was produced by Kuhn and also his co author Mete Halskov Hansen, and can be found in the book titled Religion and Ecological Crisis the Responses from Asia. It's available open access from Leiden University Press since March 2026. That means it's just a click away. Look for the chapter titled Enlisting the Divine Spirituality, Science and Environmentalism in Taiwan where you can read more about Kuhn and Metis research. My name is Kenneth Boh Nilsson and thank you for joining the Nordic Asia Podcast showcasing Nordic collaboration in studying Asia.
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B
You have been listening to the Nordic Asia Podcast.