Finding yourself blocked on the freeway by a temple roof going 20kph may sound like something out of a bizarro dream, but for drivers in Pingtung, it’s a surprisingly explainable occurrence.

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Imagine commuting late at night, and in front of you, both lanes of traffic are taken up by a temple roof, also driving home. This is the conundrum that greeted several Pingtung drivers, viewed by many as not only a sanity test, but a question of ethics as well.

Citizens seeing the footage asked whether it would be right to pass such a structure on the highway. What if the gods view your driving as disrespectful? While Taiwan has sometimes been called the “Island of Temples,” most Taiwanese still find encountering one driving alongside the freeway an oddity.

However, for long-term residents of Pingtung, the event is easily explained. Just off the local Xinpi Bridge is a traditional artifact construction company claiming itself to be the largest temple-building factory of Asia. The group builds shrines, incense burners, statues, and more. Their modular approach means that parts of the temple can be built on-site and then transported to their new homes to be put together, such as shown in the video. The temple roof pictured is 20 ping (approximately 6.6 meters) in size, for the Ryukyu Shunto Temple in Hsinchu, worth NT$5 million (approximately US$160,000) and requiring a 2-day delivery.

Taiwan isn’t the only country to employ modular temple construction; similar strategies are employed in Singapore, Malaysia, and even China, where prices also land in the millions. Nonetheless, the sight of a temple driving down the road at night is sure to holy amaze any onlooker regardless of affiliation. 

Amanda Stephens, for Rti News