Lukang and the Typhoons that almost were

Original Longshan Temple
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these next few blog entries are ex post facto and that's because time was short in the final few weeks of my stay in Taiwan and I spent most of my time out with friends or studying for my final exams.  The weekend after the Kending excursion, we were scheduled to go to the tiny historical town of Lukang ( deer harbor) to see and taste the cities many specialties.  But, as fate would have it we were lucky to go at all. Taiwan came in the range of the first of three typhoons' cross hairs that Saturday and so the sky was filled with the rain on the outskirts of the storm.  We still went to Lukang but the trip was cut short.  We did get to see one of the oldest temples in Taiwan, Longshan Temple (Dragon Mountain Temple) and get to eat some Cow Tounge pancakes.  Stiffle your gag reflex, the name is derived from their shape not from their ingredients.  Then we also got to go and see a popular temple in the city center.  Ziyi was kind enough to show us how she prays and how we could too, patiently explaining the specialties of all the dieties in the temple and the order in which they are to be visited and the amount of respect to be shown to each.  I like visiting other places of worship a great deal because it is an aspect of culture that I lack the understanding of.  I have been to several churches in the United States of different denominations and didn't find them very comforting.  Not that they were uncomfortable, just that the comfort they offered their worshipers didn't work for me.  At the working Longshan temple, I prayed to 6 different budhist deities.  When you walk into the temple you pass under the main gate then cross a small plaza to the steps that lead you into the main temple complex.  There are two open doors or portholes with a barrier of some sort that you must step over to enter the first courtyard.  Apparantly they have the barrier there because evil spirits can only pass through completely open doors.  You enter at your right and make a donation and get spirit money (fat wads of yellow paper with red ink sealscript words and tied with a red and gold ribbon) and inscence and then proceed to the primary incence urn.  Remove all sticks of inscence and light them, then blow them out and remove three for the introductory prayer.  Bow three times to the urn and state your name and place of birth and thank the gods for listening to you. Bow three more times then throw the three inscense sticks into the pot.  then you proceed to your right down a corridor where off to the side are other dieties that are incharge of such mortal maladies as love and health and travel and money.  You pray to the ones from which you need help, using much the same method as at the first urn; with three sticks of inscense and bowing three times, only you tell them your problem and ask for aid and then bow three times then leave.  I figured I would just cover all my bases and pray to all of them.  I need all the help I can get.  Then when you have three sticks of inscence left you arrive at the inner courtyard and have to climb another set of stairs up to the seat of the primary diety.  Here it was the goddess of travel.  I prayed especially hard here knowing that so many of my close friends were about to continue their travels in China and the rest of us would have to travel home soon.  Here also is a place where you pray on your knees ( or knee as sometimes the case may be)  then you have a moment to reflect in the heady aroma of inscence from hundreds of prayers.  Temples are very beautiful, very bustling places.  Their red walls and infinite details make them visually very stimulating and interesting, and then there are people from all walks of life, bowing with their three sticks of inscence asking for help with this or that.  then its down the stairs and over the barrier out of the inner courtyard back to the main courtyard where now on the right hand side you may burn that stack of spirit money in the hopes of getting rich. I guess that the theory goes that if you have paid your dues to the spirit world, your fortune will be quick in coming in the mortal one.  It sounds like a good a theory as any.       After the temple we went into the old town where we got to make little animals out of traditional Chinese playdough (only made with rice flour and comes in a wider variety of colors).  Mine started out with the intention of being a bird but ended up being a dragon.     Life really is just a box of chocolates.  Then we went to the historical museum in Lukang which was really interesting because it was a mansion that had been preserved and had many of the original pieces of furniture and clothing and toys and tools.  I am always astounded at the way people lived back in the day and the way we live with our infinite complaints.  It gives a lot of perspective and I frankly think that with Ibuprofen and tampons, we have come a real long way so I really don't have anything to complain about.  After the museum we had to head back to Taichung.   and await the end of the rain.    

I guess that the theory goes that if you have paid your dues to the spirit world, your fortune will be quick in coming in the mortal one. It sounds like a good a theory as any.