After spending some time on the old and new walls of Kaohsiung it is time to explore the major attraction here, the colorful Dragon and Tiger pagodas. From the back they look like normal pagodas but when you go to the front they are anything but normal. In fact they are distinctly different than any temple we have ever seen before.
From the front they are quite impressive with the Dragon and Tiger sitting side by side, you enter via one mouth and exit via the other one.
There is a specific order to enter and exit the complex, you have to enter via the dragon mouth and exit via the tiger mouth and that is supposed to turn bad into good fortune.
There are some nice views of the surrounding area with many other temples surrounding the lake. Not sure if this is because it is a holy lake or they simply like the location but it looks quite special.
We enter the dragon and we are caught in a tour group in a very hot and damp dragon gullet and we are happy when we can escape for a few minutes before the tour passes and we can return and take in the walls.
The representations on the walls on the dragon side are about hell or so we assume given the number of tortured and beaten down people. And most of them are white skinned blond people, wonder if that is intentional? Hmm maybe we should thread carefully here.
There are no explanatory signs so we have to guess at what the scenes represent. Most of them are not that difficult though or so we think but maybe we are not interpreting them correctly.
And then you can climb into the pagoda up to the fifth or sixth floor, we stopped counting at the second as we have to catch our breath after almost every step. That is true for most other groups also except for the monk visitors who seem to be quite energetic both going up and down. Our eyes on the other side are fixed on the black birds with red eyes that watch us intently as we make our way up, the Asian Glossy Starlings that are everywhere.
From the top there is a great view of the other pagoda and a few other temples and we enjoy these views before we descend to enter the Tiger pagoda.
The Tiger pagoda has representations of heaven in contrast with the Dragon pagoda which was more concerned with hell. But while we understood the representations for hell we are not sure about heaven, the angels are riding peacocks and deer but not a lot else. We still have a bit to learn about the religion here I guess.
As we leave we take one more look for interesting birds and besides mallards and turtles we find some of the best views of Pacific Swallows we got since we entered Taiwan. We take lots of photos of them and the pagodas and then it is time for the last part of our visit to Kaohsiung, a visit to Shoushan National Nature Park.
