Before anything else, full disclousure, I have asked this same question on Reddit and I did get some nice answers, I am looking to see if the perspective is similar or different here.
I am also not making a judgement call on the artistic or aesthetic value of Taoist temples in Taiwan, even being quite similar among each other, lots of them are quite nice to look at and at least for me, have a nice spiritual vibe.
So, I’ve been in Taiwan for about an year and an half, and thankfully, I’ve had the chance to travel quite a bit. I’m based in Taipei and have mostly travelled across Taiwan’s west coast cities.
I have seen and visited Budhist temples, big and small, Christian(I’m including Catholic here) churches, Confucian temples and many Taoist temples since I arrived.
One thing that has really caught my attention is how Taoist temples really look so so similar, in a way that you don’t see in Christian churches and Budhist temples.
Where most Taoist temples built or renovated at the same time? Were there any different styles before? Is there any place where I can see Taoist Temples with a different architeture/style?
When people rebuilt old temples using concrete, they go crazy with the roof top decorations, which was traditionally much more subdued and elegant.
Then in the 80s, a new prevailing style, which is a mock Northern China imperial palace built with concrete aesthetic, was promoted by the Chiangs and the KMT regime. Just look at the Grand Hotel, the Palace Museum, the SYS and CKS memorial halls, and countless Martyrs’ shrines that were built on the sites of Japanese shinto shrines.
I didn’t know about this except maybe a couple of prominent examples. What’s the deal here? A shame to waste a good shrine, or something more? Any examples?
The only Japanese shrine structure to have survived in tact I think is the Taoyuan shrine. It was still converted into a marty’s shrine, with the structure wasn’t leveled.
All other shrines were leveled, and some were rebuilt into somethings else. To name someof them with photos:
Traditional Chinese thought believed in having a building complex in perfect square to represent the world, since they believed the sky is a dome and the world is a square.
Everything, including the position of the gate is positioned in accordance to that world view. Also, who gets to stay at which building also has to match the world view, even if you are a statue of a god at a Taoist temple.
So that kind of limits the overall layout of any complex, but there are differences in the scope, style, and details of the structures, such as the style of the roof, sculptures, paintings and colors.
The simple Southern Chinese roof for regular houses is flat like this:
The mountain wall (山牆) can also have additional decorations to reflect the 5 phases.
I think this is way better than me either taking pictures or recommending tou take pictures yourself. But the differences go beyond that. Every religion has basic similarities. But cultural evolutions show the art in vastly different ways. The daoist and Buddhist temple’s here are by far the most varied and [visually] amazing religious structures here. Churches, mosques etc meh. The thousands of random cults just renting buildings hat look like a house, also meh.
I quite enjoy touring temple’s in Taiwan. Even now, it’s one of my true pleasures travelling around Taiwan.
