Woodenfish 2023
Taiwan Heritage Tour
Dharma Drum Mountain (法鼓山) was built through the efforts of Venerable Master Sheng-Yen (1931-2009), also known by the title Shifu, and his disciples as a sanctuary for Buddhist education and practice. Located on a scenic hillside embraced by mountains overlooking Green Bay, its architecture uniquely fuses the traditional with the contemporary, inspired by Shifu’s ideal of adapting Buddhism to modernity.
Buddhist Monasteries:
Image courtesy of: http://www.ddm.org.tw/
Image courtesy of: https://www.dharmadrum.org
Tzu Chi (慈濟), one of Taiwan's four major Buddhist orders, was founded by Bhikkuni Cheng Yen (1937-) in 1966. Best known for its charitable and humanitarian activities as well as its emergency disaster relief efforts, Tzu Chi’s headquarters in Hualien also include a medical center and a university. The monastery’s architecture uniquely incorporates Tang-style flying-eave (feiyan 飛檐) rooftops with corridors and pillars in simple white and gray tones.
Image courtesy of: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
Confucian and Daoist Temples:
The Confucian Shrine (孔廟) in Taipei is modeled after the original Confucian Shrine in Qufu, Shandong. Among the Confucian Shrines in Taiwan, Taipei is the only one adorned with Fujianese Southern-style ornamentations, and in its main hall is a plaque conferred by Chiang Kai-shek of the Confucian motto Education for All without Distinction. The temple also features a 4D theater showcasing the life of Confucius and the temple's own history.
Image courtesy of: https://www.travel.taipei/image/49637/1024x768
Roughly two thousand years old, the Octet Dance (八佾舞) is a ritual incorporating music and orchestrated movements to honor Confucius and other sages, traditionally performed by the Emperors of China (as well as the Kings of Korea). According to the Rites of Zhou, for an Emperor, an ensemble of sixty-four dancers should be arranged in eight rows of eight, while for a Duke, an ensemble of thirty-six dancers is to be arranged in six rows of six.
Image courtesy of：https://www-ws.gov.taipei/
Hsing Tian Kong (行天宮) is one of the most famous shrines in Taiwan devoted to Guan Yu, a deity in both the Daoist and Buddhist pantheons. Following his human incarnation as an outstanding general in the Three Kingdoms Era famous for his courage, loyalty, and integrity, Guan Yu, better known by the honorific Guan Gong, is now guardian of justice and order and the patron saint of policemen and ordinary shopkeepers alike.
Image courtesy of: https://www.alberthsieh.com/webp/wp-content/uploads/taipht_0086.jpg.webp
Lungshan Temple (龍山寺) is another famous temple in Taipei enshrining a wooden statue of Guanyin, the female form of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Built by migrants from Fujian during the Qing era, it originally served as a place of worship and a gathering place for new Chinese settlers, a reminder of their homeland and culture. In addition to its Buddhist elements, it includes halls and altars to several folk religious deities, including Mazu and Guan Yu.
Website: https://www.lungshan.org.tw/
Image courtesy of: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
Museums and Cultural Sites:
The National Palace Museum (故宮博物院) was established in 1965 to house a collection of nearly 700,000 Chinese artifacts and works of art, many of which were saved from the Forbidden City in Beijing during the Kuomintang’s retreat to Taiwan. The museum's holdings collectively span 8,000 years of Chinese history, ranging from Neolithic Age artifacts to imperial assets from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Website: https://www.npm.gov.tw/?l=2
Image courtesy of: https://museums.moc.gov.tw/
Image courtesy of: https://eng.taiwan.net.tw/
The Pinglin (坪林) district in New Taipei is famous for its verdant tea plantations and distinctive landscapes. At an altitude of roughly 200 meters, Pinglin is typically surrounded by mists conducive to tea tree growth. The area is best known for its pouchong tea, for which the methods of growing, harvesting, drying, roasting, and storing tea leaves have been passed down for generations to this very day.
Website: https://newtaipei.travel/zh-tw/regional/sightseeing/11
Image courtesy of: https://newtaipei.travel/