去Taiwan旅行 Day 2 Part 1
June 17th, 2007Managing photos and writing blog posts takes up a lot more time than you’d realize. ack.
Well well, moving on, the 2nd day of our trip began. We met up at Daphu’s place for some breakfast, before heading over to the Zhishan MRT station. We took the MRT to the Longshan temple (龍山寺). A wiki search reveals that there are multiple temples in Taiwan with the name Longshan, but we went to the one in Taipei City.
The temple surroundings were pretty urban, so it wasn’t like a trip to a remote monastery in the mountains. Longshan temple was sitting across the street from a park, with high density housing complexes as it’s neighbors. The architecture is quite noteworthy and when you look at the temple for the first time, the contrast between the temple and it’s surroundings are quite entertaining.
When we passed under the entrance, we entered a big courtyard. Many people were running back and forth, and lines to purchase incense were seen. There was a small waterfall with a pond on one side of the temple, and I quickly took my obligatory, “throw up the horns in front of the waterfall” photo.
Koi!
Once you pass under the 2nd entrance, we could clearly see that this was a popular temple to visit. It was pretty much shoulder to shoulder for this main worship area. Everybody was holding incense so you can imagine what the area smelled like.
According to what Daphu told me, the routine went like this: Recieve/Buy incense, light incense, pray/pay respects, place some incense into fire basin, and move on to next altar to do it again. (Minus the incense part) Many Taiwanese come here everyday to wish for good fortune, health, and etc.
Offerings of food for the gods were placed on tables, but I was told that people eventually do take them back to eat. Reason being, it’s lot of food if people keep adding to the pile. It will have to be cleaned/put away and end up wasted.
It appears offerings have come a long way, as shown by the can of Calpis.
Once we left the main hall, there was a little bit more dancing room. After we had made our rounds, we took some happy happy memory photos before leaving.
On our way back to the MRT station, we passed by a Cosplay cafe. Taiwan, (or at least Taipei) did have some maid cafes, but I did not know if this was one of them. We didn’t go in, so you’ll have to be satisfied with the storefront. Maybe I’ll return one day. hah
There’s a bit more to write about concerning the day’s events, so I’ll add to this post later today or make a new one sometime later.