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Asleep at a Buddhist Temple
©troy cochrane
| | photoessays | | 02› |
| In Taiwan, all sorts of temples are found in small, dingy storefronts, down narrow, crowded back alleys, looming large on mountaintops, and rising serenely in other beautiful and not so beautiful settings. Taiwanese religious practice is both more devout and more casual than North American religious practice. In front of homes and business, you will see make-shift shrines to deceased relatives. People from a diversity of backgrounds will stop by local temples to pay homage to gods and other |
religious figures. Unknown amounts of 'spirit money' is burned in both personal burners, and large ornate burners found at temples. At the same time, if you ask most people, they will claim they are not religious. The man sleeping at the temple is indicative of the at-home reverance that people express in the temples. How do you convey this paradox to those who've never left their homeland? I think this serene slumberer, enjoying the same shade as the Buddha helps expose this paradox. |
©troy cochrane