Hello Hive! Welcome to another travel post. This time, I will be sharing with you a time when I visited a very famous tourist attraction in Cebu City, the Cebu Taoist Temple. I put "Everyone's Shared Memory" up in the title because almost all Cebuano students and students who've visited Cebu for a field trip has been to this temple.
It would then come as a surprise when some people would tell me that they haven't been to the Taoist Temple. Every school field trip has it on their itinerary, especially for kindergarten and elementary schools. I went to the temple during my kindergarten field trip. I can't really remember any of it but my mother kept an old photo of me and my classmates in the temple. It's the only proof that I've been to the place.
On the day that I revisited the temple, I was attending a training with my workmates. Our training was held at the same barangay as the Taoist Temple. We never intended to visit the place but our training ended early on the last day and we had time to spare. We thought of the nearby places we could go and I think I was the one to suggest we go to the temple. I was eager not to come home because I was struggling with some personal problems. I just wanted to distract myself by going to places. Some of my workmates still haven't been to the temple. So it was decided, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Taoist Temple.
I remember it being a bright afternoon although it wasn't hot. It was December and that meant shorter days and longer nights. The sun was nearing the horizon and there were few clouds in the sky. The brightness was soft and pleasing.
We drove up into the higher part of the city to get to the temple. When we arrived, the whole place was unfamiliar to me. It seemed new with its bright paint and clean façade. I thought I'd be reminded of the first time I visited the place but I wasn't. The place was completely new to me.
There was a huge Chinese arch or paifang that greeted us. We went through the arch but it was only the entrance to the parking space. We retraced our steps and looked around for the proper entrance. The place did not have any attendants and people could freely go in as long as they behaved appropriately.
We climbed a set of red stairs and I noticed some renovation work that was on-going. That was why the paint of the entrance was so bright and clean.
After climbing the stairs, I marveled at the intricate details of the temple. The ceilings were decorated with paintings and there were statues that looked very well-maintained. At the top of the stairs, we rested for a bit because we did not expect that much climbing. There was this hall where monks were praying. There were a lot of signs on the walls telling us to stay silent so as not to disturb the monks.
We went further up the temple and again, I expected to be able to remember even just a tiny bit of memory from when I visited the place as a six-year old. I couldn't remember, of course. I decided to take as much pictures as I could of the place. One of the striking structures in the temple was this pagoda. I'm not really sure what it's used for but I thought it was quite impressive. I love how I was able to capture the sun behind the tower.
We walked around the first prayer hall and I noticed this bell that was attached to the ceiling. I wondered if it still worked and how it would sound like when it's struck or what it's used for.
We walked to the side of the hall and saw this big bagua. It's an octagon with different symbols on each part. I know it's used for feng shui and determining energy fields in Taoist Cosmology.
The bagua had lights on it and I suspected it looked better at night when it's lit up. There was a vacant area in front of the bagua, and there were some outdoor tables and chairs that are made of metal and are quite heavy. I can imagine people sitting in that area and enjoying the view of the city with the neon lights of the bagua behind them.
For a moment, I was able to forget my problems and I just marveled at this colorful and intriguing place. Visiting and travelling to new places provide an opportunity for us to enjoy the moment and slightly distance ourselves from our struggles.
We climbed further up the temple to its highest location. There was a structure that looked like a place also for praying. It was locked and but we could see an altar inside. From where we were, the cityscape of Cebu was visible. I can't remember why I didn't take a photo of it. Maybe I was just so focused with the temple and its structures.
Beside the temple at the top, there was a shrine with three white statues. I don't know who those statues represented. There was no guide to explain the meaning of the different structures, fixtures, and statues in the place. I know the temple is really used for people from the city who practice Taoism and those who want to pray in peace. This meant that the tourists weren't the priority in the temple. It is still a place of worship and praying.
Maybe the novelty of the place was slowly diminishing or my worries were just catching up on me but I can remember that I was feeling sad again as I looked at the shrine. I was reminded of my loneliness and my somber days since at that time, my girlfriend and I were slowly (but surely) ending our relationship.
I still was not a strong believer of the power of prayer back then. I thought that the way to do things was to ensure control over my life and others. How I wish I could have learned earlier how to let go of things outside my control and just offer it up to God or to the universe.
Around the temple, there were a lot of plants and trees that were well-tended. I like taking pictures of plants with the sky as the background. There was a tree with no leaves on it signifying the time of the year. There was an odd tree that had leaves clumped together at the tip of its branches.
What caught my attention was a Traveler's Tree. I've always admired this tree ever since I've seen it for the first time. It's such an odd tree with its 'banana leaves' spread out like a fan. It's majestic and intriguing at the same time. I thought it was some sort of banana tree specie but it's not. It's a false palm tree. My high school had this tree beside the front gate and I would always look at it and wished I was able to grow this tree on my own house someday.
I try to imagine how difficult it must be for the tree to grow to its full size, the amount of struggle for it to spread its leaves wide. That makes me more grateful to be able to witness this plant on that temple. Looking back, I had a lot of growing pains that I needed to go through after my visit to this temple. The coming days were not easy but I was able face them and outgrow them. Because I had to.
The walls of the buildings in the temple were decorated with intricate paintings of birds, flowers clouds, and dragons. The mural below was quite striking because it looked like it was painted by different people. The clouds looked different than the flowers and the birds.
There was one building that had a stage with a picture of the Taoist Temple. You could see the whole structure from the paifang, the stairs, to the different buildings, up to the highest structure and the shrine.
Above the stage, there was a beautiful moral of two dragons up in the clouds with a fire in the middle. Again, I did not know what it meant the time I visited the temple. But now, I know that dragons in Taoism symbolize the wandering of the soul and the attainment of the Dao.
In one part of the hall, there was a wall with photographs of the temple in its old days. The temple was built by the Chinese community in Cebu in 1972, so it's been around for quite some time. The colorful paintings, murals, and the old photographs of the temple remind me that old things can stay vibrant and colorful if we take care of them.
For me, the highlight of the temple are the dragon statues. There was one building with a roof that had two dragons facing each other. I'd like to believe that the dragons are the things that I could remember from the first time I visited the temple but maybe I'm just convincing myself. I know some of our memories can be forced and fabricated. For one, I know that I'm not used to the Chinese or eastern dragons. The dragons that I was used to as a kid were the those that were standing upright with large bodies and, sometimes, big bellies.
However, as a kid, I did not really notice the difference between the eastern and the western dragons. Both looked dragons to me. I think that's how it is when we're kids; we see the world with lesser prejudice and differentiation. We take things as they are and not magnify any polarizations or project our own biases. As we grow older and taken in the standards and the opinions imposed by our environment, we develop our lens of the world and see things according to our own preferences and ideals.
The afternoon brightness was dimming when I started to take pictures of the dragons. I took a close up of the one of the dragons to capture its silhouette. I think all of the depictions of the dragons in the temple had their mouths open as if ready to roar and breathe fire.
I knew we were coming home soon but I did not want to go home yet. I wanted to stare at the dragons more and take in their roars for myself. I wanted to be reborn free from the pain and the sadness. But I knew I had to go and I also knew that too much fire can destroy you.
We made our way down to the exit of the temple. We stopped by this concrete path with a station at the end. The location brings to mind the Great Wall. I remember in high school we made a miniature Great Wall of China from paper materials. It wasn't the most sturdy structure but it was impressive considering the time we spent making it.
Again, I did not want to go home. I tried my best to keep everyone in the temple. I brought them to the station and asked some be photographed inside the window. I also took pictures of the window and the view through it. There was a time when I had this strange obsession with windows and doors and using them as frames for my pictures. The window in the station was able to frame the paifang from below, the trees in front of it, the cityscape from afar, and the yellowing skyline.
It was time. I told my companions that we should go home. There was nothing for me there anymore. The placed had earned a lasting spot in my memories. I won't forget my visit to the place anymore. I also knew I needed to face my reality as I exited the temple.
That's it! Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my post. I hope I was able to captivate you with Cebu City's famous Taoist Temple. I think I got a bit dramatic with some parts of my write up but it's all part of the story of my visit to the place.
For my next travel post, I will be writing about my recent travel to Mount Manunggal, another famous spot in Cebu.
See you on the next post. Cheers!
P.S. Some of my photos don't have the same editing results because they've been permanently altered from my old iPhone. It's a lesson to keep my raw files next time.
