Today, day 11 of being in Taiwan, was filled with culture and religion as we visited many temples in Kaohsiung. The first place we visited was not a temple in itself, but an extension of a nearby temple called Chiji (or Tzu Chi) that Professor Young, Kyla, and I had privilege of visiting later on in the day. The extension of Chiji temple that we first walked through was the Dragon and Tiger pagodas. These were beautiful 7-story towers that connected to each other and had a zig-zag bridge connecting them to the shore. There was a giant dragon and tiger at the entrance of the corresponding pagoda and, as always, one enters through the dragon and exits from the tiger. I enjoyed seeing the detailed architecture of these monuments and learning the significance of it, as well as, the gorgeous landscape view of the surrounding city. One interesting, new thing that I learned was that the bridge was built in a zig-zag conformation on purpose to keep the ghosts/evil spirits away since it is thought that these spirits can only move in straight lines.
When we walked inside of the dragon and the tiger, the walls were lined with figures and stories. In the dragon there were old fables, some of which depicted how a son should treat his father with respect (for example: getting bit by bugs so his father won’t get bit & fighting a tiger for his father). This represents central values from this religion such as respect for elders. Inside of the tiger there were a bunch of figures that included individuals floating in the sky representing heaven. Another cool architectural feature was that each pagoda had corresponding figures on the 2nd level. The Dragon Pagoda had green dragons and the tiger pagoda had tigers.
The attached temple, Chiji temple, that Professor Young, Kyla and I visited contained Bao Sheng Dadi, a god of medicine. This temple was similar to many we have seen before, however it was even more detailed and decorated with gold-like paint. The god was adorned with gold and jewels as well showing the wealth and status of the God. The outside architecture of the temple looked similar to what we have seen at past temples, however this one had an eight headed dragon at the forefront of the temple. I thought that the dragon looked super neat and it was also cool to make the connection of the eight heads to the fact that the number eight is considered an auspicious number in Daoism.
I also noticed a fusion of business and religion during this quick visit. One quite obvious way was the selling of paper money and even paper money boats, something that I had never seen before. Professor young said that these boats would be burned with paper money as even more offerings to the gods. I also noticed that the temple looked as though it had wealth, which displays how the temple uses their business and the money donated to make the temple look wealthy.
We also had the chance to visit the Zuoying Yuandi Temple which was nearby to the Pagodas and Chiji temple. This temple was also super extravagant, with a long bridge lined with protector deities that led to the temple that contained the Jade Emperor.
This temple also showed the fusion between religion and business, but in a different way. This temple had more of a gift shop and entertainment atmosphere. One of the first things we noticed walking towards the temple was a karaoke area with people singing. As we walked inside the temple I noticed a penny-press machine (which to me seemed very touristy), and a small gift-shop area where Kyla and I bought matching lucky charms 🙂 The presence of these things made the environment feel more relaxed and slightly less like a worship space to me. We also enjoyed finding Giant Moon Blocks as pictured below!
Afterwards, we went to another temple! yay! This temple was called Zuoyin Xinzhuang Tienhou Temple and is another temple dedicated to Mazu, the sea goddess. This temple was architecturally really pretty and multiple stories high, which was different than most temples we had been to. We had fun looking at all of the Gods and Goddesses displayed on each floor, and I even tried using the moon blocks for the first time. Although a little scary (because of gods, spirits, and such), I eventually did get a fortune that neither Peter nor Professor Young could fully explain to me, however it was still cool to participate.
We ended the day with an evening trip to the beach in Kaohsiung. Kyla and I ended up meeting the larger group there a little bit later in the evening so we had to navigate there by ourselves. Big shoutout to Kyla for getting us there in record time (aka. much faster than the navigation said we would arrive) while I was sending emails from my phone. We did end up walking through a mountain which was a unique experience to say the least. We made it just in time for sunset! Climbing up a wall and following a crowd of people into a supposedly restricted area that turned out to be the beach. One thing that I noticed and thought was cool was that the sand was a charcoal color. April pointed out that this was from a volcano which I found interesting. We stayed until it got dark and made our back to the hotel, stopping for dinner and at the night market along the way!
