June 7, 2005

• Taiwan

  
  

   

  
  

       On May 26th, Mixy, Toro, and I headed out for Taiwan for Grandpa Wu's funeral.  The plane ride wasn't that bad.  We got business tickets on EVA air.  Business is key for transpacific flights.  We all enjoyed watching the movie version of Phantom of the Opera on the way over.  Toro sat by some dude who was a camera man for American Idol. He had a really bad Ryan Seacrest style haircut.  (Bo Bice RULES!!!) 

  
  

   

  
  

  After arriving at Taipei, we took another airplane towards southern Taiwan, and then we were driven to Tainan.  Tainan is the old capital of Taiwan.  It is known for more of a traditional feel than Taipei.  Here's a picture of  a typically busy Tainan street, and a residential alley on the right.

  
  

   

  
  

  For the days before the funeral, we mostly just stayed inside Grandpa Wu's house.  It was in the 90's and really humid outside, so being inside was quite a relief.  We ate only vegetarian meals because it is customary to do so in Bhuddist mourning tradition.  I have to say that I didn't mind it that much.  The vegetables tasted quite good.  In the past we've had some horrible bhuddist vegetarian meals where tofu is made to look like many different meats, including sushi and chicken.  That kind of meal I learned, is quite nasty.  there wasn't much to do other than reading and playing video games.  We did make one trip out to the department store though (asian department stores are awesome).

  
  

   

  
  

  I also really enjoyed walking by a cool jade carving of a cob of corn with mice crawling on it.  It was next to the room we were staying in.

  
  

   

  
  

  The day before the funeral, the whole Mixy/Toro/Greedy clan piled into a bus and headed toward the countryside.  We walked past a duck farm and a nice pond to pay our respects at Grandma Wu's burial site.

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  Grandma Wu's burial site is quite peaceful and beautiful.  One interesting thing to note is that decorating the area, are pictures made of tiles elaborating on scenes of filial piety.

  
  

   

  
  

  The most bizarre such picture showed a scene of a son and a father.  The son as you can see in the closeup on the right, has taken off his shirt.  This is so that the mosquitoes in the room will bite him, and not his father.  I dub this man, mosquitoe man. 

  
  

       The next morning we woke up early for Grandpa Wu's funeral.  The morning started with bhuddist monks chanting before we proceeded to Southern Taiwan University of Technology.  The funeral was held in a large gymnasium.  There were hundreds of people there to pay their respects.  The stage was set up beautifully, the main focus being a huge picture of Grandpa Wu superimposed on a lush scene of greenery and a lake.  The ceremony continued with more chanting from bhuddist monks.  The chanting created a really hypnotic and for me, a psychedelic-like atmosphere.  Important speakers during the ceremony included Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian, and the senior monk from Taiwan's famous Fo Guang Shan Bhuddist temple.  Before the ceremony ended, each of the attendees had to come up to the front in groups of 50 or so to bow to the family as we bowed back.  It was a very formal and interesting cultural experience.

  
  

   

  
  

  After the ceremony, family members took a bus to Fo Guang Shan Temple.  It was about an hours drive.  The scenery we drove through was breathtaking.  As we neared the temple, we passed through mountains covered with lychee and bamboo forests. 

  
  

   

  
  

  We exited the bus and headed up the hill of the temple flanked on both sides by chanting monks.  It felt kind of like we were in an old chinese movie with the grand scene of rows and rows of monks.  After going through different levels of shrines, we arrived at the Longevity Shrine on the eastern slope of Fo Guang Shan.  It overlooks the Gaoping river, and is the final resting place of Grandpa Wu.  The monastery hopes that this place will provide a peaceful and perfect completion of one's life, amidst the inspiring chanting of the Buddha Dharma.  After a vegetarian banquet at the monastery we headed back home.  There was a final bhuddist chanting ceremony of the day to bless the house.  The diminutive female monk helping to conduct this ceremony had been chanting almost all day for all of the activities.  Her voice was giving out, but even when she was offered water, she refused.  That was pretty hardcore. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Given that we were not as hardcore as the bhuddist monk, we had meat at dinner time.  The meal consisted of local Tainan small dish specialties, that are bought at tiny shops along the streets.  The first one on the left is "Bi Guh" (pardon my english spelling of the taiwanese dish names).  Its a really tasty dish of tiny pork fat bits on sticky rice.  On the right is an excellent noddle soup called "Dah Mee".  It has a really fragrant broth.

  
  

   

  
  

  On the left was a really tasty "Tuh Tuh Hee" fish soup.  It had a sweet viscous broth, that complemented the local fish perfectly.  We headed off to sleep pretty soon after dinner.  The next morning we left for a short plane flight to Japan (blog to follow).  In the airport is the tacky Taiwanese tourist mascot.  Mixy thinks that the spelling of Taiwan looks more like Tacone.  The little girl is supposed to be an aborigine.  Hope you enjoyed the story. 

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