Temples! Temples in Asia are everywhere, think of the Churches in Rome. One of the most popular sights to see in Taipei is the Mengjia Longshan Temple or Lungshan Temple. This is actually #4 on TripAdvisor. And who the fuck reads TripAdvisor… quite a few people believe it or not. I mean, if you’re traveling alone or without a local, what the fuck are you going to do.
The Mengjia Longshan Temple in Taipei was built in the 1700s. This temple was built in honor of the Lungshan Temple in Chin-chiang county of Fukien. The Fuijans built this other branch so they could continue their worship abroad. This temple has been damaged and destroyed over the years due to war and earthquakes and was completely rebuilt in the 20s.
For visitors, this temple is located right off of the Longshan Temple subway stop on the MRT line near Ximending and fairly centrally located in Taipei. There’s actually awesome food right in the area, like Peppered Buns.
This temple is interesting in that it serves many people and worships a mixture of different deities from Buddhism to Chinese folk religion. When I visited this temple, I absolutely felt like I was in a place for worship, not a tourist sight. Everyone here and visiting were paying respects, lighting incense, donating, and it was a very hands-on experience. If you go to any place of worship in any country, you’ll have the tourists like me, snapping pictures, but for the most part you’ll have the people who actually practice.
So there’s a few things you can do here, from lighting incense, giving offerings, buying charms, getting blessed. Where the incense burns is where people would swipe the smoke towards them for good luck.
These temples take me back to when I was forced as kid to pay respects to my family at Buddhist temples. It was annoying and I couldn’t wait to go to the beach or eat, but now, I miss it. The temples I’ve visited in Asia definitely has given me a much needed appreciation. It was also funny that while I was slowly getting into this temple, Maria was going to get incense, buying flowers, placing offerings and was in worship mode.
There are multiple shrine areas in the temple and people seem to be bouncing back and forth. This is a must do thing in Taipei and if you’re in need of a break, not a bad place to use the bathroom and take a breather.
Source: Guide to Taipei
