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A couple klicks behind our house, up the hill a ways, there's a large Taoist temple guarded by two impressive stone statues - a snake and a turtle. The other day I went there to ask the temple manager exactly what significance the two animals have for their religion. Three minutes into his explanation I realized that it had been a serious mistake to sleep through Chinese Cosmology 101 back in college. Something about the snake being the Lord of the Universe, and the turtle being the Keeper of the Laws or somesuch. Anyhoo, I decided right then and there that the mystery is for keener minds than me to unravel - or for people crazy enough to attempt an understanding of the Chinese spiritual world and its myriads of physical manifestations. My wife's not a temple-goer, so I'm blissfully ignorant about this side of the local culture. I'm really embarrassed that I came back from my quest knowing less than before (1), but at least I have a few pix to show - even if I can't explain what they show












(1) Actually, not quite empty-handed - the guy told me they have lots of Taiwan Beauty Snakes on the temple grounds

Hans,

You're truly hilarious. Looks like a place worth visiting.

I found a link to some much better photos of the temple and the surrounding area (one of my herping grounds)

http://www.pse100i.idv.tw/n/bageten/bageten001.htm

Click on the thumbnails and the photo at the bottom to see more.

No problem. Just watch Kung Fu Panda and it'll clear everything up for you. Plus, Jack Black is a comic genius.

Later, KW

Hi Hans

Those Taoist temples are interesting places. We visited one in Georgetown, Penang and watched one of the worshippers praying loudly whilst vigorously shaking a wooden tube filled with small, flat sticks. Eventually a couple of the sticks tumbled out onto the altar to the obvious delight of the man. We later found out that this was the method a lot of the locals choose when it will be a lucky time to buy their national lottery tickets!

How was 'Morakot '? It looked like things got pretty dire out there.

I did, and I loved it, and I was impressed how much research of related Chinese culture had gone into the movie. My fave is the turtle's name, Oogway......it means "turtle" in Mandarin

Morakot was really bad news, but didn't affect us as much here in the North. Here it was just a normal typhoon: lots of wind and rain, schools and offices closed throughout the nation, a few pots toppled over in the greenhouse, a few parked cars hit by flying shingles, but no comparison whatsoever with the horrid disaster in the South.

The upside: entire reservoirs filled up from almost-dry to overflowing within a single day (TEN FEET of rain in two days. Not too shabby.). From Spring to Fall, Taiwan's water supplies depend on typhoons, and Morakot was long overdue after three rainless months.

Rags, what you saw was just the surface of the tragedy. Many temples in the Chinese world are money-printing machines. They build them for free (with donations), then sell lottery number tips "straight from heaven" for a lot of cash. If the numbers don't win, well, tuff beans, you musta done something to piss off the gods. Buy another tip and try again!

Hans @ Jack Black is God.