The many Buddhas of Taiwan

Living in Taiwan, one of the first things you notice is how present religion is in the landscape. Temples sit between apartment blocks and night markets, and on hillsides you can sometimes see a golden figure rising above the trees long before you see the building it belongs to.

Monumental faith

The first three photographs show Buddha statues on a monumental scale: seated and standing figures in gold, set beside pagodas and against open sky. Statues like these are meant to be seen from far away. Their size is part of their message, a promise of calm and protection that reaches the whole valley rather than only the people inside the temple.

Gold is not only decoration. In Buddhist art it suggests light and purity, and in the strong sunlight of southern Taiwan these statues almost glow. Photographed from below, against blue sky, they feel less like objects and more like part of the weather.

Not only Buddhas

Religious life in Taiwan is famously mixed. Buddhism, Taoism and many local folk deities often share the same buildings and the same worshippers. The fourth frame shows a huge deity statue at the end of a bridge in Kaohsiung, a reminder that the monumental style is not limited to the Buddha. Gods of the sea, of the earth and of protection receive the same scale and the same devotion.

The detail and the everyday

The last two frames step closer. Carved and gilded eaves, crowded with figures and patterns, show how much craft goes into a temple roof. Flower offerings on an altar in Taipei show something quieter: the daily, personal side of faith, someone stopping on the way to work to leave fresh flowers.

What I find most interesting in Taiwan is not the giant statues but the way the large and the small live side by side. A statue tall enough to be seen from the highway, and a bunch of flowers placed by one person in the morning, belong to the same practice. Photography is good at holding both in one set.

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Photos: falco, llqfhj, travelphotographer, stevenstung, viarami on Pixabay, used under the Pixabay Content License. These are not my photographs.