For the island, Lukang is high on the list of historical significance, second only to Tainan. This means many temples. After one day of traipsing around Lukang, I got temple-ed out, which I never thought could happen! As a rule, we religiously go around gawking at superstition and spiritual centers around the world. At one time I even had ambitions of mastering all the Mahayana iconographies, but after seeing myriad of statues in various temples I lost heart.
Fortuitously later in that evening I looked at the cultural background section of Rough Guide Taiwan. I began to get a handle on the mess. Most of the temples and statues have nothing to do Mahayana Buddhism. Instead, they are conglomerations of localized Buddhism and Chinese indigenous religions (Taoism, Buddhism, etc.), based on historical and legendary figures. Feeling enlightened, I am back on my scholastic pursuit, only the scope is bigger now.
The Mazu (Goddess of the Sea) Temple in Lukang.
The image of Mazu in the Mazu Temple.
One of Mazu's two guardian generals.
And the other guardian general (from another temple).
The domed ceiling of the Opera Stage at Longshan Temple.
Sun-Ling in the narrowest lane of Lukang.
And of course there was some cool architecture in Lukang dating from the period of Japanese Occupation. First a building on the main street, now the Folk Art Musuem...
...And a rice barn (rice grainary; also now a museum.
Sun-Ling and John have been traveling the earth since 2008 while blogging, eating vegetarian and vegan, and riding public transportation. We love uphill day hikes, 20th-century architecture, Roman ruins, all bodies of water, local markets, shopping for groceries, aqueducts, miradors, trip planning, blablacar, and more.
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4 comments:
Very cool! I am very happy that you share your adventures with us. I feel like I'm traveling with you.
@Sunling, why you are wearing glasses now? :)
Yi
@Yi, in my old age I have a complicated algorithm for deciding contacts, glasses, or going without anything, depending sun vs no sun, hiking vs. museums/temples :(
Great pix! I LOVED the temples on Taiwan, but there are indeed lots and lots of them.
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