Beautiful Ciyou Temple in Songshan District, Taipei

This is one of the beautiful temples I have seen in Taiwan, the Ciyou Temple.

Ciyou Temple is a folk temple dedicated to the goddess Mazu. It is located in Songshan District, right by the gates of the Raohe Night Market, and not too far from Songshan metro station.

I actually came here in Songshan for the Raohe St. Night Market and in the process unintentionally discovered the temple.

I am a person who is fascinated by cultures, and religion is one of the many facets that I am curious about. Because I do not have nor support a religion, I believe I am able to see things from the distance, rather objectively without any pre-conceived notions. I do have a soft spot for Christianity, after all, I was once a Christian in my childhood and teenage years. Whenever I visit churches and large cathedrals, I always felt grateful for the knowledge and learning experiences that I have received.

What I love about this particular temple are the demon figures decorating the pagoda roof, as well as the elaborate design of the interior ceiling and the stunning colourful hanging carvings of Buddhist figures.

Ciyou is quite a big temple and seems to be always busy, even late at night.

Most Chinese in Taiwan are Buddhist (35%) and Taoist (33%), and approximately 19% are non-religious, almost 4% Christian.

Because there is a good size of the Chinese community in the Philippines where I was born and we have Chinese friends as well, I grew up being somewhat familiar with Buddhism and Taoism, in the most basic sense though that they exist, side by side with Christianity. My mom would even adopt some of their practices which I find interesting.

Complex and gorgeous pagoda roof of dragons and demons at Ciyou Temple.

Here is a short video I made:

But unlike in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong where there is also a large community of Chinese ethnicity, the Philippines does not really have amazing temples in comparison to showcase. The one I can only think of is the Taoist Temple in Cebu which is a famous local tourist attraction in itself.

Nevertheless, while I was taking a picture (from a distance) of the burning furnace vault — this is where the offerings are burned — a rather strange woman came up to me and started shouting at my face. She does not look decent at all, she was unkempt, and she was the type who may have lived on the streets or have had a hard life before. I was taken off guard and wondered if my picture taking has made her mad. Come to think of it, everyone takes pictures these days and the Chinese are notorious around the world for taking pictures, let alone selfies. It was rather a very quick encounter with the strange woman and before I knew it, she stormed out of the temple. I looked around, trying to size up if people noticed the fracas but it looked like no one even bothered.

The incident has made me reflect my picture taking actions. I have always thought that I do my picture taking discreetly. For the record, I seldom do selfies but I do take a LOT of random pictures during my travels and as I go on with my everyday life.

Although I would never know the reason why the strange woman shouted at me, this event made me decide to push my picture taking activities discretely to a higher level. I hope I can keep up to the promise =)