Page 27 - 2022 OUTLINE OF THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Table 2-7 Number of Meritorious Religious Groups and the Donation Amount

Number of Meritorious Number of Meritorious
Year Religious Groups Religious Groups Donation Amount (NT$)
(Executive Yuan Award) (Ministry of the Interior Award)

2017 15 277 2 399 926 304

2018 21 165 1 617 830 415
2019 15 173 1 843 949 960

2020 8 161 1 715 603 095

2021 13 160 2 597 894 889

VI. Deeply-rooted Religious Cultural Heritage

In order to preserve the pluralistic religious cultures of Taiwan, the MOI will promote the Taiwan
Religious Culture Map website to increase the use of the Religious Knowledge online encyclope-
dia, and raise bilingual services at religious facilities and venues by offering Chinese-English fortune
sticks, etc., to integrate religious knowledge and tourist information, as a means of enhancing Tai-
wanese religious cultural knowledge and international communication ability. In addition, the MOI

will continue assisting religious traditional customs to meet the public expectations of advancing with
the times by promoting the “Honor Faith with Morals for a Better Tomorrow” movement.

VII. Improvement of Mortuary Affairs

With the change of time and environment, people’s ideas regarding funerals have gradually
shifted. For example, the cremation ratio has risen from less than 50% to over 90% in the past two
decades. To raise the quality of these services, the MOI has set aside a budget to help local govern-

ments with their funeral facilities and to encourage environmentally friendly funerals. To date, there
are 56 locations available for tree burial and sprinkling of bone ashes. More than 90,000 people have
been served, and over 3,000 requests for sea burial have been granted. From 2018 to 2021, the MOI
has given subsides for improving indigenous cemeteries. Because of this increasing public demand
to improve the quality of mortuary services, the government has created a professional system for

mortuary certification. In May 2014, the government began to issue certificates for funeral directors,
and it had issued 1,243 certificates by the end of 2021.

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