Gods, Myths, and Heroes - Part 73

 Tu'er Shen

Tu'er Shen is a Chinese Taoist god.  The story goes that in the 17th century, a soldier named Hu Tianbao fell in love with a handsome local magistrate in Fujian Province in southeast China.  One day he spied on the magistrate taking a bath (above).  He was caught peeking, and he confessed his affection for the other man.  The magistrate had poor Hu Tianbao sentenced to be beaten to death.

After death, because this was a crime of love, the officials in the next world corrected the injustice by making Hu Tianbao into the god of homosexual love, Tu'er Shen.

The new god appeared in a dream to a local villager.  The village then built a shrine to Tu'er Shen, which became very popular

Tu'er Shen is also known as the rabbit god (above).  Note that in the second image he has rabbit ears.  Why a rabbit?  In Chinese folklore there are several stories of rabbits relating to gender and sexuality.  Over time, the term rabbit evolved into a slur meaning a queer person.  Making the god of gay men a rabbit can be interpreted as an ironic reclamation of the once-derogatory term.

Here's another depiction of Tu-er Shen with small rabbit ears.

And another, on a more explicit Valentine's Day card.

Subsequent governments got rid of the shrine to Tu'er Shen in Fujian province.  But in 2006 a temple to Tu-er Shen was built in New Taipei City, Taiwan.  Known as the Wei-ming temple, almost all of its congregants are gay.  It is visited by over 9000 pilgrims each year.  Above, two gay American tourists visit the Wei-ming temple.

In 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to recognize gay marriage.

As far as I know, the Taoist religion is the only one in the world that has a god of gay love.