Random Explorations

For much of the way back to Taipei we drove along a causeway on the coast.

There is some rugged terrain here.

There are temples (mostly buddhist) all over the place. This one was particularly grand. 

These stone figures have a captive ball in their mouths, to signify luck. 

The intricacies of the artwork on the eaves is incredible! And in a coastal climate, they must spend lots of time keeping it clean.

On one of the hills we saw a big building and decided "lets see what that is". It took us half an hour to get there, to find out it was a place to put dead people's remains! This 11-story tower (with two more below ground) is chock full of cubby holes for cremation urns. 

This appears to be an prayer altar, and the door leads to a mausoleum.

Note the symbol on the statue's chest ... looks like a swastika, right? I thought so too, but as Yvonne pointed out, it is reversed, also known as a left-facing swastika, which is technically called a sauwastika, which in the Buddhist religion means "benedictive, salutory". That makes sense .. this statue was at the entrance to the cemetary.

Here's the view from the burial grounds, overlooking the ocean. That big building in the middle isn't Scrooge McDuck's money vault, but another big building that holds urns.

This is another burial plot, probably a family plot. Note the sarcophagi in the back, and the large open area in the front with the statues. They have a Qingming Festival where the Taiwanese go and enjoy spring and sweep out the tombs. I can imagine the family have a gathering in these open spaces.

As we were waltzing around in the cemetary, the proprietors invited us in! This is one of several indoor (i.e. air conditioned) shrines on the premises. Note the memorial plaques along the stepped walls.

The urns go there!

How's that for a spider? We saw that from the car, across the road. The body is about two inches long ... it is a Golden silk orb spider. We saw a couple more later, too. Not lethal to humans, they have been known to eat small birds. Dang! I suspect the honey badger can take it.