I’m still trying to understand how everything works exactly.
So far I understand that all the gods were once real people (but how does one become a god?) There is a heaven and a hell (seems like hell might be similar to the Buddhist naraka?)
Is there no reincarnation? Usually Buddhist gods are considered long lived but with an ultimate end as the are also trapped in samsara or the cycle of birth rebirth. I don’t know if this is the same for taiwanese gods.
Do taiwanese Buddhists worship gods in a different way than non Buddhists?
What happens to regular people after they die? Do regular people who lose all their family and no longer receive offerings still become hungry ghosts and are trapped in the hell?
Why is Jade Magic? What makes it more magic than other precious stones?
How do people become temple priests? Who builds the temples if there’s no organized church. How do people know how to build them and what iconography to add to the temple? Is there some sort of divine scripture?
Where can I learn about all these things in more depth?
A simple reply for a very complex set of questions.
There are three main religions in Taiwan: 1) Buddhist, 2) Taoist, 3) Folk religion. I won’t include Confucianism as such, in that it is moreso intertwined with how people should behave in Chinese culture than any set religious beliefs.
The big problem in understanding Taiwan and its religions is that they are often intermixed in such a way as to be difficult to separate from each other. This is really an issue with Taoist/Folk religion. Often even the practitioners themselves often do not know if what they are doing is Taoist, folk religion, or (sometimes) Buddhist. Though the Buddhists seem to be the best at knowing that they are Buddhist versus Taiwanese folk religion or Taoist.
There are a lot of good books out there on this topic. I don’t know how easy they are to find/download to e-reader, though. This is a topic that requires a fair bit of time and effort to understand, and I think that reading is the best way to get a grip on it - often because Taiwanese themselves are not clear on it at all.
Not really. Some of them were actual historical figures, some were not.
The Heaven/Hell thing depends on who you are talking with - it generally isn’t all that relevant in that Taiwanese folk religion primarily deals with this life (even the Baibai to ancestors and gods tend to be about bettering one’s current life situation). Buddhists tend to focus more on the afterlife in comparison.
That being said, it once again depends somewhat on who you are talking with, and if they even know the origins of their afterlife beliefs themselves. I have even encountered people in Taiwanese folk religion who utilized Christian Heaven and Hell.
It also depends on what form of “Taiwanese folk religion” you’re talking about. As far as I know, the biggest organised religion within this complex tapestry is Yiguandao (Yi-Kuan Tao), which is almost a century old but, apparently, has origins stretching all the way back to medieval Manichaeism. But I don’t think most forms of Taiwanese/Chinese folk religion are “organised” as such. I think it’s more accurate to refer to them as traditions and habits influenced by other religions (as @Noel summed up nicely) that differ depending on the location and other factors.
From my own experience, most Taiwanese people tend to lump all Taiwanese/Chinese folk religious practices under the umbrella of “Daoism”, which they generally differentiate from “Buddhism”. But people who actually practice Daoism as a religion wouldn’t consider Taiwanese/Chinese folk religion to be part of their religion, and there’s actually an interesting history of big Daoist schools attacking and criticisng “local cults”.