On my 2nd day in KaohSiung, my friend said she will fetch me from my hotel after my breakfast. I wanted to go to Fo Guang Shan Temple, and she said she is a member there and doesn't mind bringing me with her to visit. I graciously accepted her invitation. Fo Guan Shan consist of two sections, the museum, and the monastery, as shown by the direction tree photo above. Tree is knowledge!
I can't recall whether I did eat anything in the hotel. I remembered that I drank some tea or coffee, and I love the customised mug that the hotel uses. Above is a photo of it. It's so meaningful. Sometimes, it's the little things that stands out. I appreciated such small details. I'll show you the full breakfast in my 3rd morning in KaohSiung post later.
We drove there. It was around a 45mins ride by car, via the beautiful highway. I could see the place even before we reach it. It was huge! Above was actually the area where we parked our car. At first, I thought this was an incinerator.... Turns out it's just a tower marker, and underneath it was a museum shop. My friend had to work a while from her car, so we hang around at the carpark. After that, we walked towards the main entrance.
Told you everything was bigger in KaohSiung! Above is the main entrance to the Fo Guan Shan Buddhist Museum. It was gigantic! And again, I love that the summer blue skies are there to make all my photos shine! It was a hot summer. Let's go in!
This was what the front garden looked like. In their website, or when you google it online, this is the iconic view that marks the place. Gorgeous. There are 8 pagodas, and in the middle path is the Buddha. I thought my leg would break walking around this area! And the sun! Luckily, there are sheltered walkways at the perimeter of the garden. But since this was my first time here, my friend said that I should walk the middle path up to the Buddha. So I did....
What a splendid view! I wasn't a Buddhist, but I am not beneath admiring the beautiful structure of the Buddha and this temple.
The entrance to the museum is beneath the big Buddha. And inside, there are different halls and exhibit related to Buddhism. I did take some photos, but won't be sharing any here. What's cool is, you can go all the way up to the roof top to walk around.
Here is a view from the roof top. There are a few stupa surrounding it, and in each one, there is a god inside. Each stupa is also taken care of by a nun, and she will show you how to pay your respect to the god. We were also given a small praying card with words related to the God there, and the image of the God. I kept all mine and placed them in my scrapbook :)
I love the view from the roof top. Especially with such blue skies. The above photo even looks almost like a pyramid! And it looked like God/Buddha was floating in the sky!
You can also look back to the path you just walked in on, and you can see the mountains of Taiwan in the horizon. We did ask a nun what mountains are those, and she was kind enough to explain to us. Actually the nuns there are so friendly and chatty, and it was fun stopping by to talk to them. We were quite early, and on a weekday, so there weren't many people around. .
One of the nun gave us a map of the place as well, so that we won't miss any of the attraction the temple has to offer. She asked where was I from. When I said Malaysia, she told me that there is branch of their temple in Malaysia too. She gamely google it for me and showed it to me on the mobile, lol.
In all, it was a beautiful place. Very peaceful, and very modern. They often provide you some offering to be placed in the alter, and the offerings are reusable. It was the gesture that matters. There were no burning of incense or paper offering here. It was very buddhist! The nuns were also relatively young and approachable. A highly recommended place to visit. I was fortunate to get a free ride here. If not, there are buses that comes here, but quite troublesome to board one....
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