OUR WINTER IN-SERVICE

Phil and I were required to attend a winter in-service from January 20^th to January 22^nd for all of Taiwan’s Ministry of Education foreign English teachers. The in-service was located at the National Academy for Educational Research in northern Taiwan (in a relatively small city, about 45 minutes south of Taipei).

The time we spent there was great! The presentations and speakers only went for a few hours each day. The rest of the time was spent on cultural tours of the area and simply hanging out. All the people we met at orientation in August were at this in-service (along with a local English teacher from each school). It was really nice to see everyone again. It was also refreshing to be in an English speaking environment for a few days.

The first night we were there, we were taken on a guided tour of a very well known, pretty old, folk temple in Taiwan. The temple goes by the name of Shanshia Master Temple. If I remember right...oops...the temple houses the very first statue god brought from mainland China to Taiwan.

It’s taken Phil and I a very long to figure out all the aspects of temples in Taiwan and there’s still so much we don’t know, but we think we’ve gotten a few things figured out. For example, at each temple here there are usually a few different gods, but at all temples (regardless if they are Taoist, Matsu or folk temples), people are suppose to worship the Jade Emperor God before worshiping any of the other gods in the particular temple they are at. Apparently the Jade Emperor God is the main god of the Chinese tradition.

We’ve also learned that some gods were actually people who others felt deserved the title of god after they died. From what we’ve learned, this process seems similar in some aspects to people becoming saints in the Catholic religion. Some gods were not people. Different gods are thought to help people with different needs. For example, a Taiwanese person might go to a certain god for help with relationship problems and a different god for help with finances.

We have found out that although there are many similarities between temples in Taiwan and temples in China, there are also many differences. We’ve been told one main difference is the fact that temples in China are often in very secluded places while temples in Taiwan are placed anywhere...often in very busy places.

At the Shanshia Master Temple, people worship the Jade Emperor God first (just like at any other temple). Then from there, the main god in this temple is an entity who used to be a person. Apparently this person was a scholar who turned spiritual and became extremely generous with all people. The other gods in this temple were not people, they are called the God of the Sun and the God of the Moon.

(This is the main god in the Shanshia Master Temple.)

(This spiral ceiling is made of wood, but contains no nails.)



(These "lions" are often present at temples. Usually there is two of them, a male and a female (there were two at this temple, I just took a picture of one of them). If you look closely, you'll see this "lion's" offspring under it. This indicates that it is the female "lion". We found out this design of "lion" was influenced by the Japanese when they ruled Taiwan. The reason these "lions" look kind of weird is because in ancient times, the Japanese did not know lions existed and therefore misunderstood lions to be dogs. The really incredible thing about this particular "lion", pictured above, is that it was carved out of just one piece of wood and inside its mouth there is a separate wooded ball carved from the same piece of wood that is just small enough to fit in, but too big to ever be extracted from the "lion's" mouth.)

(The God of the Sun)

(The God of the Moon)

The next afternoon we were bused to the nearby town of Yingge . Yingge is famous in Taiwan for ceramics. The first thing we did there was go to the Yingge Ceramics Museum. There were some really cool things on display at this place.

("Snake Kiln")

(A squat toilet!)

(These are fired hornets' nests. Apparently hives like these are made from clay. So, this artist decided to make them into a piece or art. What a great idea!)

I don’t remember why the thing in the following picture was in a ceramics museum, but I found it to be a genius invention. It’s a picture of a foot of an old food cabinet. The circular thing at the bottom used to be filled with water in order to prevent bugs (particularly ants) from crawling up into the cabinet/food. So, basically, the bugs would drown before they were able to crawl up. What a great idea...no poison, just water!

After our trip to the museum, we were brought to Yingge’s “Old Street”. This is where most of the ceramic pieces are sold in the town. Before getting time to look around on our own, we were brought to particularly interesting gallery. The artists at this gallery (a couple) made most of their art pieces and decorated most things in the gallery from recycled things. For example, they use a lot of drift wood in their pieces.

They are so passionate about what they do that they have to live and work out of their van in order to afford their gallery and everything needed to make their pieces. Their artwork was beautiful, their gallery was wonderful and we found them to be very inspiring!

(Yingge's "Old Street")

(One of the artists showing off all the recycled materials decorating the front of their gallery. The brown things at the top of the picture are old bed springs!)

(This is one of their pieces. It's a fountain made from driftwood and the thing hanging is from an old air conditioner!)

We ended our time in Yingge by eating at a really cool restaurant. The interior design was very interesting...really pleasant...and the food was served on all different types of fun ceramic dishes!

Below you will see a picture of Phil, myself, Peggy and Bobo. Peggy is a local English teacher at my school and Bobo is a local English teacher at Phil’s school. We had a really fun time hanging out with Peggy and Bobo outside of school.

The two of them had not met prior to the in-service, but you wouldn’t have known it by the way they interacted throughout the three days. They were virtually inseparable and often held each others’ arms/hands as they were walking. We thought this was pretty cute...funny...sweet! :)