Greetings!
Today was a temple day. We also visited two Dutch forts, and old gate, a large department store, a park with 130 standing inscription stones (stele), and we walked through quite a lot of Tainan's more artistic neighborhoods. But what we saw and learned most about were temples.
Taiwan temples focus on Buddha, Dao, Confucious, and Matsu. And sometimes more than one in a temple. Like the people who worship in each, beliefs tend to be mixed in together, with ancestral worship anchoring all of it.
We weren't alone. While we tried to find a pattern in the national origin, socio-economic class, age, or language of those around us, we struck out. We felt welcome everywhere, and our guides helped us understand what we were seeing and hearing.
We first visited the
Guan Gong Temple, an all-purpose temple which started out in 1665 as the base of operations for the recapture of China by followers of the Ming Dynasty. Now, it serves to inspire literature, architecture, educational testing, and even finding a life partner.
Next, we went to the
Dutch Fort of Zeelandia (Anping Old Fort), built in 1624 as a strategic trading position in the far east. Building a fort where there was no clay for bricks, or wood in abundance, is not easy. The solution: sticky rice, sugar, and crushed clam shells. No kidding, the walls still exist.
The Dutch decided they needed a fort further inland, and in 1653 they built
Fort Provincia two miles east of Zeelandia. Both forts were supplied by the first Dutch outpost in the east,
Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia). Their occupation of the area lasted for 38 years. In 1662, the forts were taken by a southern Chinese leader (
Kozinga) who had fled China when the Ching dynasty defeated the Ming, and intended to use it as a base of support to retake China (sound familiar).
The final temples on our daily tour were dedicated to
Masu and
Confucius. The former is loved by every Taiwanese, and arose out of fisherman family folklore. The latter better known for housing the key tablets ascribed to Confucius and his distinguished disciples.
As if our day wasn't full by then, we walked back to the hotel via the brand new
Tainan City Art Museum. We were just in time for a special party honoring the retirement of the Chair of the Board of Trustees, and wandered around in the exhibit halls as they put the final touches on the art.
To see all of the photos taken today, click on:
Monday, Mar 25th, Tainan, Taiwan.
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