Cishan with Vincent and Sunnie

Vincent and Sunnie took me out on another day trip, this time to Cishan by way of Fo Guan Shan (佛光山). Foguanshan is the largest Buddhist monastery in all of Taiwan, and located just an hour outside of Kaohsiung. I had been wanting to visit for a while, but as most of my friends had already gone with their host families, I had been unable to find anyone who wanted to go with me. When Sunnie mentioned we would stop there on our way to Cishan, I was quite happy with the idea.


Religion in Taiwan is a bit convoluted. Most people believe in something, but few people know exactly what that is. Religion for them is more about family traditions that are passed down from one generation to the next. For example, Tomb Sweeping Day, where everyone goes out into the countryside for the day to sweep their ancestors' tomb - considered a deeply important family holiday. In talking to them about their religion, most of them do not seem to have very solid beliefs. Many people believe in a mishmash of Taoism and Buddhism, not even knowing themselves where one belief ends and the next picks up. For the majority of people I have met, religion does not have a major impact on their lives (though I have met a very few devout Buddhists). It is something you do when you need good luck - such as going to the temple to pray before a big exam, or once a year paying money to light candles in the temple to help your family in the upcoming year. It is not something you need do every day, but rather, just when you feel so moved (however, there is one lady who lives in our apartment who "feels so moved" way too often - she is forever burning paper money in the courtyard directly below our windows at around 5-6am; hence we often wake up with our entire apartment smelling like burned paper money - not a happy smell...). The thing I find refreshing about religion here is that they never try to prove their religion based on a set of logical points. It is very freeing to be in a society that is not hostile towards religion. In the States, I always feel defensive about my beliefs, as if I have to prove myself to people - prove to them that what I believe is rational and real. In Taiwan, everyone has a slightly different take on religion (for example, Sunnie is a mix of Buddhism and Taoism leaning more towards Taoism, whereas Vincent is agnostic - sort of), so there is a natural curiosity to learn more about other people's beliefs, without any type of judgmental baggage. Since I love learning about other people's religions as a way to gain insight into their culture and way of life, I enjoy being able to have friendly religious conversations with people, without anyone becoming upset or heated (not possible in America).

We wandered around Fo Guan Shan for about an hour, but as it was very hot and Vincent does not particularly enjoy heavy physical exertion (walking up hills qualifies as "heavy physical exertion" here), we never actually made it up to the famous 36 meter tall Buddha statue. Instead we did our best to stay on level ground or walk downhill for the entire time - quite the feat considering that the monastery is built onto the side of a mountain... I love my host family - they never cease to amuse me. :)

After our brief jaunt visiting the monks, we went on to Cishan. Now Taiwan is entertaining in that every single town, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant it may appear, is famous for something. Cishan is famous for its bananas. This does not mean that it the only place in Taiwan to find bananas or that their bananas are somehow better than the bananas elsewhere on the island. No, there bananas are exactly the same as all of the other bananas in Taiwan. The entertaining part is that every hamlet and village wants to be unique and renowned for something, so Cishan chose bananas. The capitalize on their logo/mascot/export by making famous banana coffee, banana ice cream, banana shaved ice and the list goes on. They decorate in bananas, there is a museum dedicated to telling about banana farming, there are banana statues - in short, everywhere you look, bananas. Now I love bananas as much as the next person, so I was hugely bemused and enjoyed myself thoroughly. And it should be noted: Cishan's banana coffee = 很好喝。
Above: (left) Sunnie and Vincent on a banana seat; (right) me eating a delicious banana split sundae











Above: (left) eating lunch - a meatball dumpling thing; (right) riding a banana bicycle
Below: at the Banana farming history museum, converted from an old elementary school