One of my trips in Taiwan was to Lotus Lake. It was a day-trip I would have to take on my own as Brian had to work. Emma gave me a ride to the train station in Yuanlin, which is where we realized that I had just missed the train that would take me to the high-speed train station. And there wouldn’t be another one for almost an hour and a half. I was tempted to give the idea up as something that wasn’t meant to be, as it was already getting pretty late in the day for a long trip, like this one would be. But Emma (bless her heart) wasn’t going to let that happen. Instead, she offered to drive me to the station for the HSR. Such a sweetie!
So I made it to the HSR and purchased my ticket for Kaohsiung and settled into my seat. (Oh, while in the station I noticed a little kiosk selling baked goods–called the Pasadena bakery. How cute. A bakery in Taiwan with the same name as the city where I went to High School.) I had gotten a window seat so that I could view the countryside on the ride down. And there was plenty to see. We passed a park with a small lake that had a path around it. Over the path was a sculptural “roof” that was like an undulating golden serpent….well, to me anyway. Someone else I showed the picture to told me that it looked like a tapeworm! Well, I guess I see the world a little nicer.
power plant stack
Pasadena, the Taiwanese bakery!
A little shade for your walk
Once I arrived in Kaohsiung, I looked around to see if I could tell where the lake was, because it appeared to be quite close on the map Brian had printed out for me, but I couldn’t see a way to get across the train tracks from where I was. But I had a nice walk around the area by the station while hoping to find a simple way to the lake. Didn’t find it, but I did find a nice little park with a pretty floral clock and a sculpture of over-sized eggs that was interesting. Then I got smart and took a cab to the lake. Because of the multiple train tracks and small hill, it was about a mile and a half to the lake. No direct route.
Eggs
floral clock
Lotus Lake is a man-made lake in Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan. It was created in 1951 and the various temples were then built on its shores. There are several temples on the lake, but one of the most noted is comprised of side-by-side pagodas, one with a dragon theme and one with a tiger. When you visit the temple, you enter through the dragon’s mouth and exit through the tiger’s. This is supposed to symbolize turning bad luck or circumstances into good things in one’s life.
Tiger and Dragon Pagodas
Dragon pagoda
Before you can enter the dragon’s throat, you have to walk along a zigzag bridge that takes you across the lake to the pagodas. The reason for the pattern to the bridge, instead of a more direct route, is the belief that ghosts and bad spirits can’t make sharp turns. Those 90 degree corners are too much for them and they fall off the bridge into the lake. Yikes! Poor ghosts, so clumsy. (They also can step over raised ledges. So temple doorways on regular streets have wooden door sills that are several inches high that us live beings step over to enter the temple. Ghosts are stumped by these and must remain outside.)
Walk a crooked bridge
Once you enter the dragon’s mouth you are treated to various scenes painted on the walls of the dragon’s insides. The inside of both pagodas, like all temples I’ve seen in Asia, are painted with all kinds of pictures and scenes and ornamented within an inch of their lives. But it’s done oh-so-beautifully. In the case of this temple, many of the scenes reflect themes of filial duty, plus pictures of heaven and hell meant to inspire people to do good deeds and avoid wrongdoing.
More inside paintings
Painting inside tiger’s body
What really inspired me was the beauty of the place–the detail of the carvings, the intricacy of the paintings and sculptures. On the third floor of each pagoda there are three or four dragon or tiger figures placed around the roof edges. The figures are about four or five feet long. Each is finely detailed and made of hundreds on small tiles of various shapes and colors that make of the fur of the tiger and the scales of the dragon. They appear to be made of ceramic of some sort. There were lanterns on the balcony eaves that were solid carved wood, but they were painted and detailed to look like traditional paper lanterns.
lantern
Tiger figure
Dragon figure
It just amazes me how much time, energy and detail is put into each of these temples. I had a hard time telling which temples I was viewing had been built in the past century and which ones were hundreds of years old. They really go all-out on upkeep on these places. So the ancient temples don’t look any older than one built 20 years ago. These places are about the only things in Asia that get a new coat of paint whenever things start to look a little faded around the edges!
Temple altar
Directly across the street from the Tiger and Dragon pagodas was another temple. I’m not sure what the name of it was, but again, another beautiful temple. So I crossed the street to view that temple. Lovely. There was a wonderful embroidered hanging in the front of the temple. Traditional Chinese embroidery. Quite large, very colorful. I’m not sure who this temple (or what!) was dedicated to. Normally the god the temple is dedicated to occupies the center altar of temple. In this case, that central position was occupied by a dragon! After viewing the temple, I got an ice cream cone, then had some fun feeding bits of the cone to the fish in the lake. They went crazy over the cone. One fish actually jumped up out of the water to snatch a piece of cone out of the mouth of the first fish to grab it. It was hilarious!
traditional embroidery
The temple across the street
Just a little way up the lake are the Spring and Autumn Pavilions, dedicated to Kuan Kung (god of war). Guanyin (Kuanyin), goddess of mercy is in front of the pavilions riding on a dragon. Legend has it that the goddess appeared above the clouds, riding a dragon and signified to her followers that they must erect a statue depicting the event between the pavilions. This was done, giving the shrines their current affect.
goddess riding the dragon
Kuan Kung
The dragon the goddess rides is hollow and lined with stories of her existence. A lot of them are very graphic. But also very interesting.
Lady breaks the sword of a beheader
Dragon innards
After I left that temple, I headed down the lake towards the next one. As I was nearing the gate of the next temple, I noticed an area set up for karaoke. This was a permanent, covered, outdoor stage, attached to a small eatery. These folks love their karaoke! When I was first walking up, the guy on stage sounded like someone strangling a cat. But that’s acceptable when performing karaoke in Asia. Just strangle that cat with gusto! The next guy had a voice more like velvet, very smooth, nice to listen to. Couldn’t understand a word, but still good listening. He loved it when I took his picture.
I went on up to that temple and took my walk around then spent some time admiring the birds wading in the shallows and mud flats. There were a lot of different birds in the area. Since I love bird watching, this lake was a good spot for me. I particularly loved the swallows. They were nesting on every structure in the area. Small birds, very pretty. They were quite at home there, and not very shy at all.
lotus
- wading bird
After that I continued on to the far end of the lake, to the Confucian temple. This place was really peaceful and pretty. Like all the temples here, it appeared to be very old, but was actually built in 1977. I had the place mostly to myself; a couple of other people wandered through while I was there, but that was about it. Like I said, pretty place, although not as ornate as any of the other temples i had been in. There was also a monastery on the grounds, but it was “fenced” off from the rest of the grounds. Not so much a fence, as ornate grill work, but sufficient to afford the monks their privacy from visitors to the temple.
main temple
temple entrance
Confucian temple gate
As I was visiting each of the above temples and shrines, I kept seeing one more place across the lake that looked interesting. Another temple with a giant seated figure on the roof. So I continued on along the path that runs around the lake to the temple. The figure on the roof was Master Qing shui, AKA Chen Chao-Ying. He was born in 1044 AD. He became a monk at the Great Cloud temple and followed zen teachings. According to the pamphlet I was given at the temple, he was quite the teacher and did a lot of good for a lot of people. After he died, he was “listed in the class of fairies”. I’m not sure what that means, but I have a feeling that he was pretty highly regarded.
Qing Shui Temple
The seated figure is 50 feet tall and sits at the top of the four story building. The entry leading to the temple has a pair of fire-breathing dragons on either side of the path. There are furnaces in the bases of the dragons. When they are fired up, the dragons belch smoke and flames from their mouths. I imagine they would be pretty cool to see when they are smokin’. There was actually quite a bit to see inside the temple as well. This included a display on the third floor where there was a dragon and a peacock (among other things) made out of porcelain spoons, bowls and plates. As I was leaving, a young man stopped to talk to me. He looked to be about 14 years old and spoke English quite well. He told me that there was a big festival scheduled for the next day and night at the lake–lots of fireworks, music, etc. and kept encouraging me to stay at the lake for the festival. I wish I could have. It sounded like it would have been fun. But I had to leave Taiwan in two days, so the next day I had to start packing to leave the next morning. Staying on for the next 36 hours just wouldn’t have been possible. Bummer.
Fire breathing dragon
pretty flower on Confucius temple grounds
After that, I started hoofing it back to the train station. It turned out to be quite a lot farther than it originally appeared. While walking I passed a couple more interesting places I would have liked to visit, but I was running out of time and energy was even lower. Sigh. But I really did have a great day at the lake.
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