For this day, we decided to visit some temples in Kaohsiung. The first temple we visted had to separate entrances and exits designed to fit with the mythology of the temple. For Chinese folk religion, we must enter through the dragon and exit through the tiger, which this temple exhibited with its large animals having open mouths for entrances and exits. I made an incense blessing at this temple and followed the descriptions of its paintings inside the beasts. Its fascinating the dedication and commitment these temples exhibit towards exhibiting their beliefs, especially with the amount of uniqueness each temple has in showing it.
We visited more temples after that one where the architecture clearly exhibits the religion at hand. One thing that I noticed with the Kaohsiung temples vs. the Taipei temples was the lack of business residing in the temples themselves. There were, of course, businesses outside the temple but all of the incense and prayers I was able to make were free unlike some of the temples in Taipei where I needed to pay to give offerings and make prayers. I believe that this is most likely due to the fact that Taipei is more of a tourist city than Kaohsiung, so the temples are more curated for the locals than anybody else.
After all of the temples we visited, others decided to go to the beach for the day. I had some writing to catch up on so I stay inside for the most part. After the writing was done, I walked around the area around our hotel just to have some alone time for myself. I realized that I was going to need more alone time for myself as I was beginning to miss home and feeling a little overwhelmed being away from it for this long, especially with the semester abroad.
