Journey to the Temple | Journey to Caleb

I am going to break today’s blog into two parts because it was a pretty busy day with a ton of pictures and I don’t want this blog to get too long!

As promised, Brittany tried her fish heads this morning, after having a couple of helpings of Duck Neck. OK, not fish heads, but complete fish with heads still attached.

She was NOT real sure about eating this thing, though.

But, in the end, she said it actually taste pretty good. I noticed she didn’t go back for a second helping.

Tay tried her hand at chop sticks. It was kind of sad ….

We left the hotel this morning and traveled to a Buddhist Temple which was about 40 minutes away. On the drive, Caleb kept our guide and driver in stitches as he talked a blue streak. It is nice to have someone who understands WHAT the little guy is talking about all the time! Do you have ANY idea how embarrassing it is to be in a crowded elevator with Caleb rattling off a mile a minutes and everyone knowing that THEY know what he is saying but YOU have no clue?

Anyway, as soon as we got into the van, Caleb told the driver, “You are a good driver. I fell asleep in your van yesterday.” Then, later, he regaled everyone with a story about tiger’s and lion’s which he personally experienced but then later admitted it was only when he went to the zoo. He has quite an imagination and I am sure that Mia and he will be able to think up many exciting adventures for Kelly and I to unwillingly participate in!

When we got to the temple, they were having some sort of authentic dance presentation, complete with a fake emperor and emperess. The costumes were pretty cool and we stayed out front and watched the entire procession before we went in.

Here are the girls in there pretty skirts. However, it was later in the day that I started paying attention to the fact that NO ONE has bare legs here! We may not be seeing any more skirts in this trip. (FYI, Taylor made Brittany’s skirt.)

Glamor girls …

There were several small children at the presentation.

Then, after the dancers, the emperor and his court came into the temple.

Here is the emperor and emperess.

Inside the temple, there was an area that you could lay a gift if you wanted to have a child. I’m thinking that I pretty much laid MOST of these gifts out there!

These are shingles that you could pay for and receive a blessing. Hmmmmm ….where in our history have we heard something like THAT before????

Here is the crew in front of just one a numerous temples on the land. There must have been 50 – 60 acres that were covered by all the buildings.

This is still an active temple and people do come here to pay their respects and give an offering.

Below is a carving done completely in wood. It is hard, in picture form, to catch how amazingly intricate the carving was. This is a god with all kinds of little gods surrounding her. I have no idea how long this must have taken to complete.

The entrance to one of the main buildings.

Brittany and Caleb bonded a little on this outing! I guess that is what the outings are for, huh?

Huh?

Kelly and Taylor … ladies in red…

Another statue of a god. One side faces South and is happy (I think) and the other faces North and is angry. Don’t ask me why …

All the buildings were made without the use of nails. The wood was slide together in a locking manner. Then, that wood was painted. This lead to some really pretty woodwork.

OK, so this next statue was carved completely out of wood and had to be at least twenty feet high or more. It amazed me how much time people would spend on something that is, quite frankly, meaningless.

Here is what typically happens when we are out. In the first picture, our guide, Robert, is telling everyone about the next building. Caleb is listening until he sees me, then it is a bee-line straight towards me, usually so he can ask me to show him the picture of himself that I have just taken.

In front of each of the temple buildings is an incense pot where you can light your incense as part of your sacrifice.

I thought the wooden god was impressive, but the next one blew the wooden thing away. This statue is 22 METERS high! I hope you can see how intricate it is. They made it by building up an earthen tower that was over 22 meters high. Then, workers dug down into the earth and made a form from the inside. Once completed, they filled the form with some type of material (I don’t remember what) and when they broke away the earth, this is the statue that was left. Robert said it took 30-years to make this thing. I’m thinking he MAY have pulled that number out of the air, but it definitely took a VERY, VERY long time. In the end, more wasted time ….

Here is a few from the top of the big statues building looking back on a part of the park.

All the rooftops had this ornate soldiers and dragons along the roofline.

Here is our little group, standing on a bridge high up in the air that was made almost 2,000 years ago. Makes you feel pretty confident!

All along the side there were these support buildings. I think they used some of them to restore pieces from the temples.

Along the roof line of all the buildings is just a ton more carvings, etc.

This statue was a gift from the emperor (I have no idea which one) to his mother-in-law. I hope my mother-in-law isn’t expecting something like this. It has 1,064 budda’s carved into it. They brought it into this building in the winter by building a ramp out of the ground, covering it with water, waiting for it to freeze, and then they pulled the statue up into the building. Pretty smart!