I did have an excellent time though. My first stop was the Longshan temple. You know, I’ve seen quite a few temples by now. After a while you start to think “once you’ve seen one Buddhist/Confucian/Taoist temple, you’ve really seen them all”. Even the one I saw in Mongolia was not very different from the one on Lantau island in Hong Kong. But like a lot of experiences here in Taipei, the temple here had a unique exhilarating edge to it. Outside the temple was a park full of necromancers behaving in a really mind-boggling way. They were not praying, they were practicing some very odd looking magic. I bumped into an American in the park, who had the same flabbergasted expression on his face as I did, and we both asked each other at the same time “Do you have any idea what these people are doing?”- hilarity ensued.
Just outside the temple was a nice artificial waterfall. Throughout the temple grounds were speakers covering everything in a mystical chant.
The actual temple was super-charged with mysticism that I’ve not encountered in these kind of places before. It was full to the brim with worshippers, but rather that creating a pointless chaos, it somehow managed to create a stronger sense of serenity. A huge table was overflowing with offerings of food and flowers. Strange pillars of red light rotated at the back in a hypnotic kind of way, and there were all kinds of fires and incense pots. Interestingly, the temple was full of nuns in dark clothes. I realized it was the first time I’ve seen women as part of the religious bureaucracy here in Asia. I’m sure I’ve just not been observant enough, but it made quite an impression.
