A god's birthday is celebrated by taking the image out of the temple and carrying it around its own territory in a palanquin — the raojing, or in Taiwan the rao jing procession. Ahead of it go firecrackers to clear the road, lion and dragon dancers, stilt walkers, drum and gong troupes, and costumed figures representing the god's marshals and generals; in Taiwan the Eight Generals perform a face-painted martial dance and enter trance. The route matters more than anything else: it traces the boundary of the god's jurisdiction, which is also the boundary of the community, and walking it is a public assertion of both. Disputes between neighbouring temples over overlapping routes have produced genuine conflict, historically including violence, because the argument is about territory rather than theology. The scale can be enormous — the Baishatun and Dajia Mazu pilgrimages in Taiwan run for days across counties and are followed by tens of thousands on foot.