Rising Lotus Temple (蘆洲湧蓮寺)

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Religion in Taiwan is both exciting and vibrant and even though an outsider like myself may not fully understand everything that is going on, its all very interesting to the little anthropologist in me and it is apparent that it plays an important role in the way Taiwanese people conduct themselves in their daily lives. 

While it may be difficult for outsiders to understand what is going on all the time, we can still enjoy the amazing spectacles that may include fireworks, fire crackers, dancing gods, lion dances and drums. These events may seem to be a normal aspect of life to the people who grew up here, but to people like myself, they provide a unique look into the so-called soul of this country and what makes it one of the most amazing places that I've had the opportunity to call home.  

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The history of this small island has been a turbulent one - especially over the past few centuries with several different colonial powers taking control and spreading their influence. The spread of different belief systems was widespread during these periods forming Taiwan into the polytheistic and ultimately extremely tolerant country that it is today.  

Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism (including Chinese Folk Religion) have especially spread throughout the island and have shaped the Taiwanese worldview. Religious places of worship do a good job reflecting not only the past, but the people who have shaped the country into what it is today.  Temples in Taiwan therefore double as active places of worship and museum-like relics that have withstood the troubled history of this island.  

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One of the defining changes in religion in over the past century was during the Japanese occupation of the country. During that period there was widespread persecution of Taoism (as it was seen as representative of Chinese culture as a whole) Taoists took to worshipping in secret in Buddhist temples which allowed them to practice in secret without fear of persecution.

This example of compassion, tolerance and acceptance changed the religious landscape of the land and if you walk into any of Taiwan's 5000 temples today you will certainly notice that several religions are often housed within the same building and all work together in peace and are all respected by Taiwanese people no matter if they consider themselves a follower of that religion or not.    

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The Rising Lotus Temple (湧蓮寺) in New Taipei City's Luzhou District (蘆洲區) is prime example of this tolerant attitude towards religion. The temple is a 143 year old polytheistic temple that opens it doors to the followers of Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese Folk Religion. 

It is a large three-storey temple that is busy all year round - but especially busy during the lunar new year celebrations when families from all over the country will brave the massive crowds to pray for good blessings for the coming year. 

The temple has historically been important to the Luzhou area and as you see quite often in Taiwan, large temples tend to be the cultural centre of the community - which means there is a lively night market and bustling traditional business district surrounding the temple. 

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The temple houses four large shrines with several smaller off-shooting shrines.

• The main shrine is dedicated to the (Chinese) Buddha of Compassion known as Guanyin (南海觀世音菩薩)
• The shrine on the top floor of the temple is dedicated to Shakyamuni Buddha (釋迦牟尼佛), the Medicine Buddha (藥師佛) and Amitabha (阿彌陀佛)
• Another shrine is dedicated to the Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王) which are protector deities in Buddhism. 
• A shrine on the first floor is dedicated to various gods of Chinese folk religion including the Jade Emperor (玉皇大帝) and others. 

Some of the off-shooting shrines are dedicated to various deities of Chinese folk heroes such as Koxinga and his lieutenants who have been important in Chinese history. 

For Chinese readers, the list of shrines in the temple are as follows:

• 正殿：南海觀世音菩薩、善才、龍女、韋馱菩薩、伽藍菩薩
• 三寶殿：釋迦牟尼佛、藥師佛、阿彌陀佛、（釋迦牟尼佛侍者：迦葉尊者、阿難尊者）
• 天王殿：四大天王
• 玉皇殿：玉皇大帝、三官大帝、南斗星君、北斗星君、太陽星君、太陰星君、文昌帝君、魁星爺、高元帥、李天君、楊天君等
• 後殿、眾神殿（懋德宮）：國姓爺、（國姓爺副將：萬禮將軍、甘輝將軍）天上聖母、註生娘娘、中壇元帥、福德正神、西秦王爺、田都元帥

Walking around the temple, you'll be overwhelmed by the amazing attention to detail within. The temple adheres to the principles of Feng Shui in its design and all of its walls are painted with incredible murals depicting the life of the Buddha as well as different periods of Chinese history.

The stone work on the walls is beautiful and I could have spent hours walking around looking at all the minor details. The roof of the temple as well has amazing design and there are dragons and phoenixes littered throughout and almost seem to be communicating with each other. 

If you are in Luzhou for the day, make sure to stop over and check out the Rising Lotus temple. The Night Market in front of the temple also has some great food and the surrounding area is well known for it's freshly hand-cut noodles (刀切麵) and is easily accessible through the new Luzhou line on Taipei's MRT. 

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Getting to the Temple

Take Taipei MRT's new Luzhou Line (蘆洲線) and get off at Sanmin Senior High School Station. The temple is about a 5 minute walk from exit one with directions on a sign outside the station. 

Address: 新北市蘆洲區得勝街96號 （#96 De Sheng Street, Lu Zhou District New Taipei City)

 

Yuan Guang Temple (圓光禪寺)

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I spent a lot of time growing up studying the various forms of Buddhism and how the philosophy varied from country to country - That interest ultimately led me to become involved with Shambhala, a Buddhist group started by a Tibetan Lama who had escaped to the west just after the 1959 uprising in Tibet. I don't consider myself a Buddhist, nor do I follow any other religion, but I have a lot of respect for the core values of the philosophy.

I didn't actually spend that much time learning about the spread of Buddhism in Taiwan so when I arrived in Taiwan, one of the things that quickly became a hobby was visiting all the various temples and taking the time to enjoy the treasure troves of traditional Taiwanese art inside them. I often tell people that there is not much you could learn in a museum about Taiwanese history that you wouldn't learn from a Taiwanese temple. 

One thing that interests me about the temples here is that you often find several different religions all housed within the same building coexisting peacefully.

People have argued with me that all these religions (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and various folk religions) all are more or less derived from each other or at least related therefore there is no need to have conflict with each other- but to that I would counter: Are Judaism, Christianity and Islam not related?

I personally believe that this is not a reflection of the religions you find here, but a testament to the kind of people you find in this country and that these trivial arguments and wars we have in the west over religion are pointless.

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When it comes to Buddhist monasteries in Taiwan however I start to get a bit confused as to what is actually going on inside them. Buddhism is rooted in a philosophy of living a simplistic non-material life, and if you become a monastic, that simplicity and lack of materialism is supposed to go to the extreme. 

I find that the major Buddhist organizations in Taiwan (Dharma drum mountain (法鼓山), Fo Guang Shan (佛光山), Tzu Chi (慈濟) and Chung Tai Shan (中台山) all seem to subscribe to some strange notion of modernity and take the Vatican’s “bling bling” approach to religion which to me seems a bit ironic considering the way Buddhists should adhere to a lack of attachment to worldly objects.

Any visit to these monasteries in Taiwan tends to be a bit overwhelming at the displays of opulence put on by these organizations. These displays of monetary wealth likely go hand in hand with Chinese culture and I guess it shouldn't be that surprising to see that they take the “go big or go home” attitude towards life that is a reflection of the Chinese notion of having “face.”

I think the the majority of the money spent on these massive palace-like monasteries would be better spent on charity and improving the lives of the poor. 

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One group that doesn't seem to go overboard with their decadence is the “Yuan Kuang” (圓光) Ch'an Buddhist group here in Taoyuan. 

Ch'an Buddhism (禪宗) is better known in the west as “Zen” and had its origins in 6th Century China before it spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam centuries later. 

The Yuan Kuang temple was established in 1918 during the Japanese Colonial period by a monk named Miao-Guo who was so influential at the time that he was invited to Japan to teach the Japanese royal family.

When he came back to Taiwan he built the Yuan Kuang Temple here in Zhongli (中壢) and through it he attracted young people to experience monastic life while at the same time offering high school and college education courses to them. Since 1987 the temple has been renovated and they have started to expand the school to an area near the monastery where they are now offering graduate courses. 

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The design of the main temple stresses simplicity. When you walk in you are greeted by a statue of the Laughing Buddha known here in Taiwan as Mi Le Fo (彌勒佛) with a paved walkway to the steps of the temple with a garden on both sides. The front of the temple has a modestly sized statue of the Buddha of Compassion Guanyin (I say modestly sized because most of the temples mentioned above have statues taller than 75 meters.)

When you walk up the stairs you are greeted by the entrance to the shrine/meditation room with some small statues of the Buddha at the door as well as an incense burner in the middle. 

The shrine room is beautiful, but once again it stresses simplicity and doesn't go overboard like the other monasteries I've visited. It's very quiet inside and there is always a nice breeze coming in through the windows. For an organization that has obvious weath, its refreshing to see the Yuan Kuang group maintaining a simple monastery and not expanding to the extent that many of the other monastic orders in Taiwan have succumbed to. 

If you plan on visiting the temple, you are more than welcome, but I stress that this monastery has quite a few monastics, so turn off your cellphone ringer and be quiet to respect the people who are trying not to fall asleep while meditating. 

If you're travelling through Zhongli, the Yuan Kuang temple is a nice stop over for an hour or so. The people there are kind and they don't push religion on you, tell grandiose stories or ask for donations like so many other places like this do.

The map below shows how to get to the monastery, it is a short drive from Zhongli or the Taoyuan High Speed Rail station. I don't think there are buses that run through the area, so it would be best to arrange your own transportation. 

 

Website: 圓光禪寺 (Chinese-Only) 

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Xinzhuang Temple Street (新莊廟街)

A few weeks ago a fellow long-term Canadian expat author, blogger and a hiking friend of mine, Nick Kembel wrote a blog about Xinzhuang (新莊), the district of New Taipei City (新北市) that he has called home for the past six years and it interested me quite a bit. 

While I’ve driven through Xinzhuang a few times, I haven’t actually stopped to visit and to tell the truth I had never actually heard of the cultural attractions that Nick’s blog introduced. Being a lover of shooting Taiwanese temples and architecture I decided that a visit to Xinzhuang’s Temple Street (新莊廟街) was something I had to put high priority on when I had some free time. 

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Ciyou Temple (慈祐宮)

I found time to visit last weekend and I decided that after taking care of some other stuff in Taipei, I would try to arrive around late afternoon and explore some of the temples and the back alleys before I lost sunlight. After which I would move on to the new New Moon Pedestrian Bridge (新月橋) and then make my way back to the Temple Street to experience the night market culture of the area as Nick's blog had suggested. 

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A Taiwanese child making the most of her Temple Visit 

Getting there was pretty easy, it was about a 20 minute MRT ride from Taipei Main Station (台北車站) with a transfer at Minquan West Road Station (民權西路站) and from the #2 exit you make a right turn and walk about a hundred meters and you’re more or less at the entrance. 

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Guangfu Temple (廣福廟)

The thing that initially surprised me about Temple Street (and something that I feel a bit ashamed that I didn’t know already) is that the street has three temples which one of which has been classified as a level two and the other two level three national historic sites in Taiwan. Becoming a national historic site isn’t an easy task, and the fact that there are three temples in such a small area that have all attained these statuses goes to show that Xinzhuang had a very vibrant and economically sound history as the temples were all built several hundred years ago during various eras of colonial rule of Taiwan.  

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A Taiwanese man praying at an altar in Ciyou Temple (慈祐宮)

Apart from shooting inside the temples, I found that the street and the alleys around it were all great for street photography. If you’re a photographer in Taiwan I highly recommend an afternoon exploring the alleys in the area as there tends to be a lot going on subject-wise. There’s a lot of see and there is ample opportunity for street work. I would recommend arriving earlier in the day though, because in Taiwan older people usually go about their business in the mornings and leave the night markets to the younger generation. 

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An elderly Taiwanese women in a back alley near Temple Street 

The newly opened New Moon Bridge (新月橋) is quite beautiful, its in the shape of a crescent moon and if you walk along it at night there are some buskers performing magic tricks or music for the people who are crossing the bridge to enjoy. At about 7:00pm the bridge will light up and at this time you’ll see a lot of photographers lined up with their tripods waiting for the light show. On the way back I walked across the a glass-floor section of the bridge where you could see the river below you. It was actually a bit scary - even for someone who isn’t afraid of heights like myself. It wasn't that I didn't trust Taiwanese engineering, I just worried about the safety of my camera. 

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Xinzhuang's New Moon Pedestrian Bridge (新月橋) connecting Xinzhuang to Banqiao

On the way back from the bridge I noticed that things had started to pick up and there were a lot more people arriving at Temple Street for the night market. The night market here I felt was a bit ordinary as far as night markets go. Seasoned veterans in Taiwan typically know that each night market has its special dishes and things to see - the Temple Street Night Market however doesn’t really have any culinary specialties - its all very typical street food that you’ll find at every other night market in Taiwan. I didn’t eat anything while I was there partly because I was starting to come down with a bit of the flu and my stomach wasn’t feel very good and because of the current problems with oil and food safety in Taiwan. 

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Temple Street Night Market

After making my way back to the night market, I walked the entire street again and when I was done I made my way back to the MRT through a back alley avoiding the crowds and hopped on the train back towards Taipei City. 

I really enjoyed visiting Temple Street and I plan on making my way back in the future. There is more for me to see, and the possibilities for street photography earlier in the day are a lot more interesting to me than the night market (and the bridge.) 

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The area is much busier at night where you can enjoy lots of street food

If you find yourself looking for something to do on the weekend in Taipei and you want to avoid the throngs of Chinese tourists at all the other tourist spots, I highly recommend you make Xinzhuang’s Temple Street a priority to visit. Its not like some of the other very touristy and not so authentic ’old streets’ in Taiwan like Sanxia Old Street (三峽老街) or Yingge’s Pottery Street (鶯歌老街) yet you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the amount of history you’re able to experience while visiting this small area of Xinzhuang, an area of Taipei city that has only recently become extremely accessible due to the expansion of the MRT system. 

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