These HDRs are two churches I saw right before our visit to the zoo yesterday.
While Christians make up a small part of the population, they are visible in most cities. Some other groups do include Mormons (with the infamous name tags and black ties – both Taiwanese and American), Catholics, and offshoots of Taoism and Buddhism such as I-Kuan Tao and the Red Swastika Society (the swastika here is used as its original intent – a symbol of good will from the Hindu and Buddhist lines of faith) – though these other groups often melt into the larger Taoist and Buddhist sects.
Beipu Township (北埔鄉) is a Hakka community located about a 50-minute scooter drive east of Jhubei. Hakka culture (see the Wikipedia), based originally in Southern China, makes up a big part of Taiwan’s cultural heritage.
Starting off is a Hakka-style tea bowl. Hakka tea is ground from spices and nuts – and mixed together with water to create a sort of porridge. I’ll be posting photos of our experience in a tea house later… it was very good though I have to say it didn’t look incredibly appetizing at first glance.
We also visited a temple in the central part of the town.
Yuling and I arrived to the Yimin Temple celebration of the Ghost Festival on Friday anticipating some pork. Well, at least what will become pork.
At the temple, a pig (yes, a whole pig) is offered to the ghosts and gods in order to bless the town and appease the ancestors. While this food source is NOT wasted (Chinese food rarely is!), its head is put on display for a time. We missed this event as we were too early, but managed to capture some temple music meant to entertain the spirits that walk the earth during ghost month.
The first thing I noticed was a stage to the side with a Chinese Opera performance. This is pretty common during ghost month as it is believed to “entertain” the ancestors.
The performance, I later learned, represents a distinct brand of Chinese opera here in Taiwan. Taiwanese opera has its own style – and is much different than the varieties you’ll see in Hong Kong, Shanghai, or (especially) Beijing – where it is known as “Peking” opera… by the former Westernization of the capital’s name.
The above jar of sticks are 求籤, or (Cantonese) Kau Cim. I’m not sure what the Mandarin translation is, but I remember seeing them at Hong Kong’s Wong Tai Sin temple.
The above photos show some temple musicians playing a call for the gods to join the ceremony at the temple. I was joined as a photographer by a large cadre of locals with DSLR cameras – I’m guessing they were covering the temple’s preparations for the event.
The instrument in the first photo is a Suona, as covered in one of my earlier posts. You can listen to the unmistakable sound it makes it at the Youtube video I posted there.
I know I’ve been posting a lot (you definitely know if you subscribe!) – but I wanted to get these photos up before the ghost festival starts again this weekend. The festival comes to a climax – first with Tuesday’s display of food and other offerings as well as the burning of “ghost money” and setting off of firecrackers. The ghost money mentioned involves these Taoist prayer sheets… meant to bring protection and good luck. This protection and good luck is implied because you are in a way giving money to the ancestors – as well as providing them with food and drink. Many of these tables – as you’ll see below – had food, beer, incense, and other items… sometimes a whole chicken with a head on – common in Chinese rituals.
This set of photos looks like it could have been taken in the US – a chapel on the campus of a private Methodist-founded college in Taichung by the name of Tunghai University. Taichung is Taiwan’s third largest city and geographically in the center of the country… its name “台中” actually including the chracters for “middle of Taiwan.”*
All photos are HDR except for the last which is made with a single exposure. Oh, and if you haven’t noticed, I changed the layout and theme of this site – let me know if you do/don’t hate it if you want. I went with the black background because this oddly became a photo blog – something I never planned on starting.
*Lots of Taiwanese cities are like this. 台北 (Taipei) simply means “north of Taiwan.” The city I live in, 竹北 (Jhubei or Zhubei) refers to being “north of bamboo.” Just south of 竹北 is 新竹, or Hsinchu. The “竹” character refers to the bamboo which I’m guessing used to be in the area while, if you haven’t noticed, 北 means “north.”
On day 3 of the Hong Kong trip, Yuling and I spent some time for the first half of the day visiting Ngong Ping, home of a famous “giant” Buddha, the Tian Tan Buddha I mentioned earlier.
The day started off with a cable car ride, which I refrained from shooting because I’m a stickler when it comes to getting the best shot with my lens. The way I figured, why would I take a picture out of some plexiglass that will ruin the quality of my (expensive) camera lens? Anyway, I did get this photo of these water droplets from condensation…
…interestingly, the place was a sort of Buddhist Disney World for the first part – as another blogger has mentioned. On one hand, I saw this as unfortunate… but then again, kind of fascinating. There were mascots (some kind of monkey thing) but no costumed performers. The entire area was new – the “village” of shops and Western and Asian restaurants reeked of being manufactured while the statue itself was only completed in 1993.
Nonetheless, it was all a fascinating experience… after climbing 200+ steps, the visitor is introduced to quite a few sights.
The above is an HDR of some statues built to worship the giant Buddha. All are also bronze and each has a different offering… I counted four of them, if I in fact remember correctly…
The above is a single-exposure of the view to the north… at the back side of the seated Buddha.
This was set up along the stairs to perhaps represent a pagoda or Joss chimney. I thought it made a good contrast with the background.
If you look closely here, you can see the cable cars to the top left.
I’m not sure what kind of plant this is, but it does show the power of my new 70-300mm lens, as I was quite far away from the flower.
The last photo here shows this location as a great spot to put this Buddha. Hong Kong’s mountains have this intermittent haze that really makes the place seem otherworldly – especially with a 150-foot Buddha seated on top of a mountain.
Last night, I was having dinner with my girlfriend’s family in the older section of Jhubei.
As I mentioned before, many of these Taiwanese cities tend to have “older” and “newer” sections – for a quick comparison, you’ll find most temples and “older” markets on their side of town… the type of market, that is, where your chicken is still alive when you arrive and definitely not when you leave. The newer section of Jhubei on the other hand boasts some very nice restaurants, grocery stores, and mostly everything else to keep you from having to go across the river to Hsinchu too much.
Many young people and to be honest, foreigners (like me) live in the new sections of these cities. We have our conveniences which, while not absent from the other side of town, are a bit easier to adjust to when moving from a foreign country. There still might be some aspects of culture over here which are impossible to ignore – for example, the firecrackers I’ve heard going off as one of the many new buildings was opening near my apartment complex – but it is much different than just a few kilometers away (yes, I’m trying to convert myself to the metric system at least while I’m here…)
The old section on the other hand, has character. I’ll get to that later… back to the dinner.
So there we were, eating the whole chicken her mom just got, along with the other piles of delicious food in which we were indulging. I find my communication with the family has improved, in spite of not speaking much Chinese – though the first thing I had to etch into my brain was “Hao bao! Hao bao!” – which translates to saying that I am too full to eat any more… along with “Hao shih” – meaning that the food is very delicious. Don’t want to offend.
Partway through my third bowl of food – this time, noodles with some soybean curd – we hear the sound of suonas coming from down the street. If you haven’t heard these instruments before, I’ll ask you to go ahead and give this Youtube video a try:
Partway through, she uses a reed in her teeth to make the sound sans instrument – I don’t think this happened – but at least his clip gives you an idea of the unmistakable sound they make. Check this Wikipedia article for more background information…
So I hear these instruments coming from down the street, and all playing traditional temple music. Along with them, comes this brightly-lit… thing… seen through the blinding on the house’s large sliding doors. I could only hear the increasing volume of the music and see this large bright thing move slowly through the street.
Yuling’s mom says that this could be a funeral procession – keep the doors closed! Evil spirits might come through.
Of course, her curious nature just kind of did away with that – she opens the door five haunting minutes later and we see that it’s not a funeral, but something put on by the local temple… the suonas and drums and gongs and cymbals are deafening by this point, so I have to say I was sort of feeling uneasy until she actually opened the door and gave the “all clear.”
The procession stopped nearby because there is a small local altar – which is dwarfed by any other Chinese temple. It’s set up to provide security for the neighborhood and the locals take care of it just as it’s an extension of their own property. This procession, which included mobile altars and even some walking effigies of gods being marched through the streets, was greeting the local god on the way to the final destination.
The festival itself ended up at the local main temple. Yuling and I hopped on a scooter as she went through some back alleys to beat the procession (and the traffic it caused as no streets were closed – it just kind of meandered through multitudes of scooters and cars…) to the temple itself where we were able to see a fireworks/firecracker/dancing spectacle. Fascinating stuff, indeed.
This probably relates in some way to ghost month – which comes up next week. Last night, the gods were allowed to wander through the streets that night and they were asked to return “home” to the local main temple. During ghost month, it is believed that the spirits will be wandering the streets as they are let out of heaven and hell – so it is imperative for people to be careful as not to join them upon their return…
There are bad times to forget your camera.
This would be one of them – something that a Westerner probably wouldn’t experience even IF he/she was living in Taiwan. The good news is that I did have the camera… I took about 450 photos, of which I used about 50 of them due to softness and low light issues… still not bad at all. See below for some, and be sure to click on the Flickr site to see the rest of the set.
The above photo is a Chinese god who I currently forget the name of – he was on a mobile altar of sorts. Right underneath him and blocking out the people carrying the altar is a moving car. Interestingly, this parade went through some pretty busy streets that were never closed off. They just kind of meandered through traffic.
Yuling was awesome enough to get me to the temple far in advance of the traveling festival so I could get more shots. While waiting, I noticed some photographers with DSLRs going in and joined them in getting some shots of the complex.
Divination stones – blocks of wood meant to give the worshiper a way to ask the gods questions and get a response. If the stones are thrown in a certain way and end up facing in one direction, it could mean that the prayer has been answered. These were already lined up to take this shot – so convenient!
This is the “big multicolored thing” that I had seen moving by the house. It was quite impending and lit up much of the room I was in as the music zoned out everything else. This is a special altar for some sort of special god with which I am not familiar…
A man prepares firecrackers at the temple. I had first seen firecrackers like this on public display at a Houston, TX Chinese New Year festival. The fire warden was there. No fire warden – or safety officers – or yellow things to tell you to stay away here… needless to say, I was extra careful.
This fire was probably being kept up by some sort of Taoist prayer sheets – and played an important role in the ceremony at the temple gate. The gods would walk over it as part of the ceremony… and I kept a serious eye on it with all of the fireworks nearby… to make matters worse, the night grew windier as the procession came to the temple.
At first I thought this truck was out-of-place, sitting in front of the temple… it was carrying musicians, I soon realized.
These gods are actually around to represent evil, interestingly enough. They are to be respected and reverred – but not necessarily worshiped…
…and the suonas! They were definitely heard…
I was told that this dancer represented a man who was being attacked by an evil spirit – as he swayed to and fro, you could see this in his steps. Apparently, the person being attacked was still protected by the gods… it would be interesting to learn more about what this represents.
Aftermath: the firecracker litter and ash created a really… colorful… area. I was careful when taking this as to make sure the firecrackers had all been expended first… thankfully they had.
Still in Houston – leaving the country in about 2 weeks and leaving the state in 2 days! These were taken during my last trip to Pien Hou Temple south of Downtown Houston – I just now had the chance to post-process them and upload. Check out the Flickr set for more from that trip.
Tonight, I decided on a whim to drive out to see Sri Meenakshi Temple, a South Indian style temple that I had previously visited for a Diwali celebration. (If you can ever see a Diwali celebration, don’t hesitate! Just don’t take any tips from Michael Scott. Indian food is actually delicious…)
Anyway, I made sure I’d see it near or at sunset – though I think I slightly missed the “golden hour,” the HDR in these shots definitely shows the sun. I took this photo barefoot after asking if I could take some photos of the temple complex – they gave me permission… as long as I was without shoes while in the temple gates.
Click on it to see the Flickr – and some photos I’ll be posting here in the future from San Jacinto monument.
Today, I had a chance to visit Pien Hou Temple in Houston. Something people don’t realize about this Texas city is that there are not one, but two Chinatowns. The old one was set up when people first moved here with the expansion west and has a lot of history… history which is dying due to a mix of gentrification and a movement toward the “New Chinatown” in the Bellaire district far, far west of downtown.
As one commentator noted, it’s hard to tell how long this temple will stick around. Check out his photos of the temple for different takes on this place. It’s a beautiful spot… and as always: click on the photo for more… I updated a lot of photos to Flickr today.
