Taiwan Temples
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
I want to fly above the rooftops of Taipei with my good friend Meei Meei —high on the chi of the universe. Romantic sounding to be sure, but we might get to do some rooftop flying before this year is out.
Grandmaster Yuen is going to Taipei, Taiwan in the middle of November for Module 1, Nov 14th-15th and Module 2, Nov 21st-22nd, and if anyone can lead the way over the rooftops…
Among the many attractions of Taipei in addition to rooftops is the National Palace Museum, or the fourth ranked museum of the world. OK, so I guess fourth is pretty good, but…
Taipei is also known for its legendary night shopping which sounds even better. Who wants to sleep when there’s some serious shopping afoot!
It reminds me of the olden days when I lived in San Francisco. Night shopping in SF China Town was magical and is much missed. Chris would be purchasing strange herbs from bearded inscrutable Asians, and I would be trying on the colorful, silk Chinese jackets.
First on the Taipei list is temple sight seeing, though. I’ve heard that most everything pales when it comes to the many, glorious and grand temples of Taiwan.
I have a bit of enticing info about three Taipei temples: One temple for wish making, one for calamity prediction and guess which one just is what it is… The Taoist temple, of course.
Lung Shan Temple (211 Kuangchou Street) “Make a Wish Temple”
Lung Shan Temple or Dragon Mountain Temple can be found in the Wanhua district, right in the heart of Taipei’s old town.
Here’s my advice: Everyone who visits the Lung Shan Temple should probably make a wish. Legend has it that the temple was built because a goddess was granting wishes on that very spot back in the 18th century. Once upon a time, you see, a man left a Kuan Yin (Goddess of Mercy) amulet hanging from a tree, and when night fell, the amulet began giving off a brilliant light.
The people in the neighborhood soon found that the charm had the power to grant wishes. After enough wishes came true, they respectfully decided to build a temple to the goddess of mercy, herself.
You have a better than average chance of finding your favorite god or goddess there, as more than 100 deities are housed within. The temple is now known as ‘the meeting place of the gods’. I wouldn’t mind meeting a few.
Zu Shi Temple (81 Kangting Rd) “The Nose Knows.”
Another temple we should probably visit is the Divine Progenitors Temple. The first thing I would want to do is check and make sure the nose of Panglai is residing on his face.
Legend has it that every time a disaster was about to happen the nose would take a ‘nosedive’ onto the floor. After the calamity or threat of calamity was over, the diving nose would spring back up to it rightful position. Talk about ‘the Nose Knows”.
This temple was constructed in 1787 and it houses the seven images of Divine Progenitors, Panglai reputably being the one with the most power. We shan’t, therefore, name the 6 lesser deities. Hopefully, they will not take too much offense but if they do… who cares!
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Bao-An Temple (61 Hami Street) “It is what it is.”
Bao-An is located in the middle of the Da-Dung District, or the spiritual center of Taipei. Affectionately known as the Temple of Da Dao Kung, which literally means the temple of the Great Taoist Master, construction was begun in 1805.
This fine temple required a full quarter-century to complete because all the different wood and stone materials had to be brought over from mainland China. Even the artisans were imports.
One of the biggest draws of the Bao-An Temple is enshrined in the middle of the bell tower—-the Goddess of Birth, Zhu Sheng Niang-Niang. Flanking her, are 12 female aids, each charged with the task of with assisting child birthing during a particular month. Here is a good tip I found on the internet about getting the gender you want out of your pregnancy. I lifted it straight from a website dedicated to the Birthing Goddess herself. And I quote:
For Baby Boy, prepared White Flowers (of any type), white flowers represent positive or Yang, after offering this to Zhu Sheng Niang Niang, she will get the message and bless accordingly.
For Baby Girl, prepared Red Flowers (of any type), red flowers represent negative or Yin, after offering this to Zhu Sheng Niang Niang, she will get the message and blessed accordingly.
In the old agricultural society it was considered lucky to have many children and grandchildren, so women from far and wide would come to worship the goddess. They most often petitioned for sons and still do, as a matter of fact, especially on Zhu Sheng’s birthday. When is her birthday you might ask. The 20th day of Lunar 3 month is the answer.
This temple features the usual dragon pillars at the entry way, and also a pair of stone lions that are not so usual. Normally, the male has an open mouth and the female a closed mouth. (There’s a big cultural difference!) But both of these lions have open mouths!
Bao-Sheng Da Di, the god of medicine, is the the temple’s main man/god. Reportedly, he was given human form by a skilled medical practitioner in China’s Fujian Prvince, back in 979.
As you can see in the picture of the colorful and perfectly carved roof, the temple is in excellent condition. Not so, always, though.
A seven year restoration project of major proportion was launched in 1995, because of the termite infestation. At the completion of the project, there was a three-day sacrifice or ‘chien chiao’, to celebrate and thank all the gods. 
As you can imagine, there was a lot of god thanking and celebrating going on. People like to think their fortune and prosperity rises and falls with the temple’s ups and downs.
Included in the festivities, was the ancient custom of fire walking—”stepping on burning coals with bare feet by the young wizards who hold aloft the deity’s sedan chair”.
Fire walking is one of the Taoist practices left over from the olden days–you know, young men proving their magnanimous strength of mind, body spirit by showing off.
Thanks to Dr. Yuen, we’ve moved on…
Right, Meei Meei?