Baoan Temple

After visiting the National Palace Museum, I set out to see some temples.  I took the bus back to the subway station and took the subway just a few stops to the northern end of Datong district of Taipei via its Yuanshan subway stop.  It’s one of the oldest communities in Taipei.  Baoan Temple and Confucius Temple are both famous historical sites located in this area and directly next to each other.  This post will first focus on Baoan Temple.

Both temples of Baoan and Confucius were approximately 5 blocks from the subway station but the area was nothing special.  There were a lot of garage/repair shops leading up to the temples.  It sorted of reminded me of Flushing, NY where Citi Field / Shea Stadium is/was located in a dumpy area.  This was similar.  See the immediate pic below.  However, the second pic below is just a small little temple along the road.  I walked past it while walking to the two main temples.

 

Before visiting the temples, I wanted to get an afternoon snack and I found a little restaurant that met my needs.  There are a lot of little vegetarian (and meat too) restaurants in Taiwan that act like buffets.  They are common in every neighborhood.  You just grab a plate and tongs and pick and choose what you want (i.e., veges, meats, tofu, etc.).  But unlike American buffets, most in Taiwan estimate the cost by weight – and they’re cheap compared to Western standards.  So you pay for the amount on your plate but the soup is included with unlimited servings; get as much as you want.  Also, if you want rice, you pay an extra charge but that is unlimited as well.  The pic below is my ‘plate.’  I got some tofu, cauliflower, corn, carrots, black fungus, and bean sprouts.

I thought the Baoan Temple (also known as Dalongdong Baoan Temple or Taipei Baoan Temple) was simply gorgeous and probably as you can see from the pics below; its architecture is different than mainland temples.  I feel this maybe was due to the use of color – more of it in Taiwan I believe.  I feel you will notice this via this post as well as others coming up of the numerous temples I visited while in Taiwan and will write about.  Baoan is a Taoist temple and one of the leading religious sites in Taipei.  The temple's main deity is the emperor Baosheng, the god of medicine.  Construction commenced on the Baoan Temple in 1805 as it replaced a previously existing wooden shrine from 1742 in Dalongdong and it was completed 25 years later.  Throughout the 20th century under the Japanese rule of Taiwan, the temple underwent numerous improvements and extensions, which resulted in the present temple grounds.  In 1985, the government of the Republic of China conferred on the temple the status of level two historic monument.  In 1995, after years of neglect and abuse, the temple was the focus of repairs and renovations.  The mural paintings and sculptures that adorn the the building are considered some of the most impressive in Taiwan.  In 2003, the temple was inducted into the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation.