[Taipei, Taiwan] - 艋舺龍山寺/Lungshan Temple of Manka {Travelogue}

One of the reasons why I enjoy watching Bourdain travel the world and eating things is the cultural background he also provides. As a traveler, I feel that it's important to not only physically go places, but to also learn and gain a greater appreciation of what makes people who they are. Temples, churches, places of worship are a great way to do that. It's an extra step above the food (and really, doesn't the extra walking and learning just make you extra hungry so you can eat even more?). 

That said, whenever I'm in Taipei, I always try to make time to go to Lungshan Temple at least once. Lungshan Temple is one of my favorite temples to visit (my favorite is actually Xuanzang Temple at Sun Moon Lake). Said to be one of the luckiest temples, it survived a bombing by the Americans during World War II (weird, right? Taiwanese people aren't Japanese, but colonialism blah blah can of worms blah blah please refer to my sources at the end of this post to read more). While most of the temple had to be rebuilt, the central Goddess of Mercy Statue remained intact. Many people visit Lungshan, and daily, you can hear, watch, or join in the chanting of the sutras. 

I'm not going to go into detail about the temple as the sources below do a pretty good job, but I would like to mention that sometimes when you go to a temple in Taiwan, you might see a procession like this. It's not always in a calendar or known to everyone, but it does feel like it's always some God's birthday--

When we arrived at the temple, there was a larger crowd than normal, and the processional was just arriving.

Some people really could care less and just rode/walk/drove through the middle of it all. It's Taipei after all, and some people just can't be bothered.

Here come the lions!

Lion dancing - really takes some team work. Two people as one lion. Jumping around, walking on those stilts, and all the while remembering to twitch the eyes and open the mouth!

These guys had the best seats in the house. Whether or not those scooters belong to them is another story.

Not a celebration without some fireworks! Although this poor kid thought everything was too loud.

At this point, everyone started lining up to run under the palanquins.

Do I run under? Or keep taking pictures? There were just so many people. It was pretty intimidating.

Address:
No. 211, Guangzhou St, 
Wanhua District, 
Taipei City, Taiwan 10853

Sources:
Website
Raid on Taihoku (most sources are in Chinese or Japanese, as I doubt Americans would want to brag about bombing a temple, Catholic church, or a girls' high school)