Taipei, July 15 (CNA) A Taoist temple in Toucheng Township, Yilan County on Friday lit a 12.5-meter tall incense stick, which cost NT$4.6 million (US$153,591) and is expected to burn for a month, in a bid to seek blessings and good fortune amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃), Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) and Yilan County Magistrate Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙) attended the ceremony to light the incense stick, one day before the birthday of Chifuwanye, the main deity at the 192-year old Shun Tien Fu temple, according to the temple administration.

The deity instructed worshipers through a ritual conducted in 2020 to build a giant incense stick following the spread of COVID-19 around the world so the pandemic could end soon, temple official Sung Wen-chuan (宋文泉) said.

The temple spent NT$2.4 million on equipment and preparing a base for the 4,368-kilogram incense stick, which took 10 months to complete and cost NT$2.2 million, according to the temple and incense stick manufacturer Ji Wen Tang.

Ji Wen Tang owner Lin Chien-hung (林建宏), whose family business made a 10.06-meter incense stick for the temple in 1999 and a 6.63-meter one in 1996, estimated that it would take about a month for the incense stick to burn through, depending on the weather.

Since its completion, when the county magistrate dotted the eyes of a dragon painted on the incense stick on July 2, the temple has held a series of events, including a local religious procession, which takes place every four years and was on July 10 this year.

(By Worthy Shen and Kay Liu)