Daily Work for Temple Janitor

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Temples are places where people find their religious commitment, so there isn’t an off day for temples. Whenever worshippers step into a temple, it is always neat and tidy due the hard work of temple janitors, who do more than just cleaning. From our interviews, we learned that Fude Temple on Dianzai Street schedules 3 janitors each day into two shifts to maintain the temple. We experienced their job first-handed, and we would like to share our findings.

Rundown of Daily Work

Opening

｜Photo: The Wondrous Temple Expedition｜

The temple opens its gate at 6:30 A.M. every morning.

Clean altars

Temple janitors dust and wipe altars and large deity statues every morning. However, deities on the altar cannot be wiped at will. They are only cleaned on Qingtun, the twenty-fourth of December of the lunar calendar, and the janitors must obtain permission from the deities before doing so.

Sweep and Clean

｜Photo: The Wondrous Temple Expedition｜

Every morning and before the end of day, temple janitors would sweep the temple ground thoroughly, and garbage is collected at the end of each shift.

Organize Incense Burners

After the first cleaning in the morning, temple janitors need to remove incense sticks every 30 minutes to keep the incense burners clear. They need to pay attention when removing incense sticks to avoid getting burned. This is the part of job that we did not get to experience. When the temple is crowded with worshippers, temple janitors may need to remove the incense sticks every few minutes.

Selling Rice and Paper Money

｜Photo: The Wondrous Temple Expedition｜




｜Photo: The Wondrous Temple Expedition｜

After cleaning, temple janitors would sell paper money or rice. They need to package the paper money into small portions. Worshippers would come to them to buy paper money or rice.

Maintaining the Temple

Whenever things in the temple are broken or in need of replenishment, temple janitors would take care of it. Their job scope does cover a wide range of things.

Service the Worshippers

The most common questions temple janitors get is the order of praying. They would explain to them verbally.

Organizing Offering Goods

In compliance with environmental protection initiatives, temple janitors would collect paper money at 2:00 P.M. and 10:00 P.M., and the Environment Protection Agency would come once a month to pick up the paper money for off-site incineration. At the end of each day, the temple janitor would collect offering rice that is left for donation and then give it to the needy.

Closing

After a hard day’s work, the temple closes at 11:00 P.M.

Working as a Temple Janitor

My responsibility this time as a temple janitor was sweeping the entire temple ground. Since there are lots of worshippers, the work was not easy. After experiencing the job, I am thankful for their services to worshippers because they need to wipe the altar, wash the basin, remove incense sticks, sell paper money, and even clean the bathroom. With their hard work, worshippers are able to have peace of mind while praying.

At first, I was responsible for handing out Lunar Calendar booklets and calendars, and worshippers really preferred the Lunar Calendar booklets. After that, I helped washing the plates on the right side of the temple. Since there was a big crowd of worshippers, our helping with the plates actually alleviated the congestion that was about to form.

My job this time was to sell paper money and rice. I found this job very interesting because if a worshipper does not wish to bring the rice home, he / she could donate the rice to the temple, and the temple would then donate that to disadvantaged groups. Some worshippers could not accept the notion of replacing paper money with rice because rice could not be a medium to convey their sincerity to the deities. I also learned to greet customers from this experience!

I think temple janitor’s work is not boring at all. You just need to look for joy in the work. For example, when I chatted with worshippers who were cleaning their fruits, I got the chance to introduce myself, explain why we were here, and introduce the temple. I think the temple staffs would also find joy in their work by doing things like that.

We went to the temple to experience working as a temple janitor for a day, and my job was to light up incense sticks. I did not get it right at first, and it took me quite long to get the incense sticks lit. Just as I was puzzling why it took so long, a kind lady told me the trick was to leave some space between incense sticks so they would light up more easily. Next, I helped with stocking incense sticks. The incense sticks used at temple are arranged by the janitors one batch at a time! Looks like being a temple janitor isn’t that easy after all.

Source Text: The Wondrous Temple Expedition, interviews with temple janitors at Fude Temple on Dianzai Street │
Photos: The Wondrous Temple Expedition