Haňule z Kyjova

My first plan was to go to Kaoshiong however I was already getting tired and so I decided just to visit a monastery Fo Guan Shan in northern part of Kaoshiong county.

I did not know what to expect I’ve only read that it is huge buddhist place and the largest monastery in Taiwan. Just to mention how did I get there from Maolin. Yes there are some buses going there but I tried to hitchhike again which is also a great way to get around the Maolin valley.

Fo Guan Shan – is a new religious movement based in Taiwan. SO it is not only a monastery but an extraordinary Buddha memorial centre. Fo Guan Shan has many branches all around the world practicing so called humanist buddhism. It means that they try to get closer to people, make even more popular things to entertain people and get them like buddhism just because it can be normal part of their lives and not just going to temple and praying. It is also a charity organisation. They have an orphan house, schools, university, building a library for Dharma words. You can go there to volunteer for few months and help in the temples, monastery and memorial doing many different jobs.

I spent one night there for 300 NTD in a clean dorm and met a girl from France, Marjorie, which is now a volunteer there. She showed me around and explained more about the work in the monastery. She also took me in the morning for the prayers to the main shrine. That was again a nice experience. I could not understand the words but the prayers are kind of calming your mind.

After that I joined the breakfast with the nuns and monks. There are certain things you can and cannot do during the meal. It is forbidden to talk only in the beginning and in the end you say some prayer. You are served some vegetable, tofu, rice and soy bean milk. If you want to add something you have to place the bowl to certain place that the “waiters” will understand which dish you want to add. All people are served and finish eating in about 20 minutes (and there was about 150 people).

The monastery and memorial are really sooo big and there are so many people. It makes you think about the buddhism and their ways. But as I said this is a a different new way of buddhism, more concentrated on people so you have to take it that way. People want some entertainment, they want fun… Just visit and have a look….

The last destination I wanted to go is Maolin. It is a place in the southern part of the Central mountain area. There is a river valley where a lot of butterflies fly from the whole Taiwan to hibernate during winter. In this place there is also Rukai tribe located.

In the first village Maolin, you can see the butterflies areas. The main species is violet butterfly, which can gather here in thousands and thousands. If you visit a museum they will be very happy to play you a short video about the valley in English.

If you continue further there are two other villages the second one is Duona village, which is famous for the aboriginal tribe and the special way they built their houses using the black stone slates.

I stayed in a camp site in between the villages called Da En Gorge. The place is nice and for 500 NTD I got a nice room, for 4 people but stayed there just by myself. The young owners can speak english so dont worry to ask them. The place is good for camping and they are making their own bread and you can taste some good food in their restaurant. I met there a professor from Tainan university who took me in the morning to nearby waterfall. You have to walk maybe 5 km but the place is really nice and in summer you can have also nice swim in the little pond.

Unfortunately during the big typhoon in 2009 all the hot springs were destroyed so it is no longer possible to go have a rest in there.

My next stop was Tainan, which is the oldest city in Taiwan with more than 200 years history. Tainan was initially established by Dutch, who were the first Europeans to settle in this area. There are still some dutch buildings in the town. You can visit Anping fort, which lies in the west coastal area. To these days only some walls remain and there is a small tower from which you can have a nice view (entrance fee about 50 NTD).

After visiting Anping I headed back to the city centre. Famous place is Confucius temple, built in 17th century. One thing that surprised me is that in Tainan many sights are not for free (like Anping fortress, or Fort Provincia), and also the entrance to the temples are payed. But then you go visit National Museum of Taiwan history and the entrance is free…

The National Museum is a nice place, very calm and there are some exhibitions about history, literature. In the time I visited there was also exhibition about William Shakespeare.

Tainan is famous for various snacks and many typical taiwanese dishes originated here. Unfortunately I cannot read and I am not familiar with the area so I just tasted some dried mangos and had wonderful glutinous rice dumpling (zhong zi, the kind steamed in bamboo leaves). Next time I really have to go there with someone native and taste everything.

I stayed at a friends house but she could not take me around as she was working on the weekend. However she took me on saturday night to a great event. It was a buddhist temple celebration. This kind of celebration is just one in 20 years. The main part of the celebrations begins at midnight but before that there are a lot of fireworks and people watch different shows, dancing, singing, taiwanese operas and puppet shows. On a field outside the town they prepared a huge place for people to gather and see all these shows. There were also long tables with donations to the gods. Food, drinks, meat, sweets, and different decorations put on the table. Moving dragons, statues from ice, dancing nearly naked girls… Every one wants to show off their wealth and how good buddhists they are.

At midnight we went back to the main temple. There were many processions coming to greet the God and pay him their respect. There is a kind of ritual dance that men performed in front of the god. After that the God himself walked outside of the temple to greet his guests. I cannot describe the feeling. There were so many people, so many small gods carried in their litters. Some people high on betel nuts or alcohol or whatever. Some really in a little religious trans. We got into the crowd and it took us one hour to get out of there as the people were just pressed together.

I am really grateful that I could experience this kind of celebrations. It was really special. We got back home at 3 am, but the people would continue till the morning and all next day. So if you go to Taiwan I recommend to check if there is by chance some similar celebration.