Lukang, Part Deux!

After much wrangling, they got us all piled on the bus for a 10 minute ride to the next temple. No complaints, since it was hot, humid and sunny. The temple of Longshan Si is to peace as Tianhou was to color.

No Dutch noblemen here, just elephants.

This is a Buddhist temple, devoid of the garish coloring and, well, noise. Made of wood and stone, it is different than the temples I've visited in Japan in many ways, but very similar in others

Front courtyard. No vendors, no band playing. Peaceful.

These guys line the temple wall. Each one is unique

This is where Superman got his moves.

Many statues lined the walls enclosing the temple, each of them about 20" tall and each one unique. I'm sure there is a backstory to each one of them, but since we had only about 30 minutes to view the temple, I didn't get to ask about them. It reminded me a little of the 500 statues of the followers of Kuukai on Miyajima Island in Japan. The same kind of artwork and detail, especially facial expressions. The temple was built in the early 1700's and is dedicated to the female goddess Guanyin. The wood is somewhat faded and the paint is peeling in some areas, but that gives it more of a timeless feel, somehow, rather than any sense of shabbiness.

Inside the first gate is a nice courtyard with two trees flanking each side and the main building in front. The ceiling just inside the first gate is a traditional Taiwan octagonal dome shape and painted heavily. Time has worn away the brightness, but you can still see the detail of the painting and the woodwork.

Similar to other Buddhist temples, there is a bell and drum on either side of the entrance to the main building to signal the morning and evening:

 In the rear courtyard they had a neat set of wells, The Dragon's Mouth, with two smaller, round wells for the eyes and a larger, square one for the mouth, all decorated with a grate bearing the universal (at least in East Asia) Buddhist symbol:

Yet one more way they get donations

After getting herded back into the bus, we were off to "lunch". "Lunch" was a seafood buffet restaurant. Oh, joy. Well, you can't bat 1.000, can you? They assured me there was a "vegetarian option". My experience in Asia is that vegetarian, if it's not a Buddhist temple, is rarely vegetables. I was right. The food was all tofu made to look, and taste, like the seafood we weren't going to eat. This, apparently, is what is done in Taiwan and is meant to be a nice thing, allowing the poor vegetarian to experience the joy of eating meat. I appreciated the sentiment, but appreciated my forethought in buying many snacks from 7-11 before we left even more.

Looks, and tastes, like seafood...

Two temples down, many more to go! (Dynasty Warriors VI reference...)