Day 4 - In Kaohsiung - 27 March 2024

The itinerary for this day was the toughest scheduled during the tour. I was not able to find suitable MRT connections to link the day's program to Lotus Pond, Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum, Shoushan National Park and the Shoushan Zoo. I considered hiring a car for the entire day. The cost involved and certain restrictions on time made me shelve the idea.

In the end, I reworked the program after a chat with Subin, an office bearer of the TMA, based in Kaoshuing. He had provided valuable inputs when I was planning the trip in India. Yesterday, when I spoke to him after reaching Kaoshuing, Subin said that Fo Gaung Shan Buddha Museum and the Lotus Pond are two unavoidable places to visit. I tried various commute combinations for the Buddha Museum using Google Maps and came up with an MRT-Bus option. This involved two MRT rides and a long bus ride.

When I reached the bus station, I discovered that the next service to the Buddha Museum was about 50 minutes away. Despite the early hour it had started getting quite warm. When the bus eventually arrived, the queue had grown long. Since standees were not permitted in the bus an entire tour group missed out. The bus ride lasted 35 minutes and I was deposited right in front of the massive complex. Admission to the complex is free. The museum's construction started in 2008 and was officially opened to the public in December 2011.

The Front Hall of the Museum has plenty of options to eat, drink and buy souvenirs. Not many visitors had arrived at the Museum before 10 am. From the Front Hall one exits into a broad avenue ringed by eight pagodas with the magnificent cross-legged Buddha at the end of it. The Big Bell near the Big Buddha is a fusion of Chinese, Japanese and Korean styles with over 5200 calligraphied verses.

The architectural style of the Buddha Museum is a fusion of Buddha statues of ancient India and pagodas from various dynasties of China. Currently, the Fo Guang Big Buddha is the world's largest copper-cast Buddha statue. It sits cross-legged with hands in the lotus mudra. From base to tip, the Buddha statue is 108 meters tall, the equivalent of an average 36 story building. Its head alone is 3 stories tall, while a single eye is as wide as the whole floor of most other buildings.

The Jade Buddha Shrine houses an extraordinary and magnificent image of the reclining Buddha, carved out of precious white jade from Burma. On either side of the Jade Buddha statue are magnificent relief carvings, one depicting the Pure Land of Vaidurya Nirbhasa, and the other depicting the Pure Land of Sukhavati. These reliefs were carved by a team of craftsmen from Quanzhou, Fujian in Mainland China using natural jade stones.

Three tooth relics remained in the world after the Buddha's cremation in 543 BCE. Two of these relics are enshrined in Sri Lanka and China. The third tooth relic was carefully kept in India for more than 1000 years. In the thirteenth century, during the Mughal invasion of Inda, the relic was secretly brought to Tibet and was enshrined in the Sakya Namgyal Monastery. Presently, it is enshrined in a reliquary in the Jade Buddha shrine.

The Thousand-Armed, Thousand-Eyed Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva statue in the Museum at the center was sculpted by Loretta Yang Huishan, whose artistic creations are made with the lost-wax process of glass casting. The shrine contains thirty-three images of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva set in a circle. Clear, bright mirrors are set on the four surrounding walls. Images are reflected on each other by the mirrors, creating an unbroken continuity with layer upon layer of images stretching far and near.

The Golden Buddha shrine in the Main Hall is the highest seated golden Buddha statue in southeast Asia signifying the harmonious exchange of Mahayana and Theravada Buddhistic traditions. The statue was gifted to Fo Gaung Shan organization in 2004 by the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand on his 90th birthday. The seated Bodhisattva, Buddha and five hundred Arhats at Vulture Peak, Sutra illustrations and great compassion mantra carisson are part of the 10 treasures of the Buddha Museum.

There are four permanent exhibitions in the complex. They are: Museum of Buddhist Underground Palaces, Museum of Buddhist Festivals, Historical Museum of Fo Guang Shan and Life of the Budhha Museum. The first named museum is specially designed to house 48 underground palaces and artefacts from all over the world. There is a countdown clock in it which shows when the next palace will be opened - a palace will be opened every 100 years. The other museums use interactive multimedia to make a telling effect on the visitor while explaining Buddhist festivals, history of the Fo Gaung Shan organization and the life of the Enlightened One.

There are lady ushers everywhere, ready to help and explain, overseen by the monastic order. Photography is strictly forbidden inside the shrines and flash photography throughout. After an educative tour of 90 minutes, I returned to the bus stand to take the return ride to the HSR Zuoying bus station. Fortunately, the wait wasn't very long. However, that was negated by the wait for the bus at the HSR Zuoying bus station to the Lotus Pond, which was over an hour away. Truly, a colossal waste of time. Added to that was the energy sapping weather.

The Lotus Pond is an artificial lake in Kaoshuing which is a popular tourist site. The Pond is known for the lotus plants, though I saw very few of them, and the numerous temples around it. The Lotus Pond complex, opened in 1951, has the Spring and Autumn Pavilions, the Dragon and Tiger pagodas and the Confucian temple. The Spring and Autumn Pavilions was established in 1953 in Chinese palace-style. Each of these is four-storey and octagonal, with green tiles and yellow walls. According to local legend, the Goddess of Mercy, riding a dragon appeared in the clouds and instructed followers to build an effigy in the form of it's coming out between the two pavilions. Surrounding this temple is a pond with thousands of turtles.

The Dragon and Tiger Pagoda towers are seven stories high constructed in the lake. The pagodas are fronted by dragon and tiger statues. Visitors enter the towers through the dragon's mouth and exit via the tiger's mouth. This is believed to be auspicious and helps to ward off evil spirits. The towers are connected to the shore with a 9-angle bridge. Inside the tiger and dragon figures are works of art depicting stories of good and bad and historical expressions of Chinese tradition. The pagodas are currently under extensive renovation.

Once the ambulation along the Lotus Pond was done, I was half dead, and the knees were about to give way. I sat and waited at the bus stop for nearly 30 minutes to return to the HSR Zuoying bus station. That gave me some time to reenergize. However, I was in no shape to continue with the rest of the day's program to the Shoushan Zoo and National Park. I sought refuge in the hotel room to escape the hot weather.

When the sun went down, I walked to the Pier 2 art centre and took the dolphin walkway along the Love River. The Pier 2 art centre is situated in basin 3 of Kaohsiung Port. It has been transformed into a unique open art space, providing artists and students with an environment in which to express themselves. It has become Kaohsiung's most popular cultural spot.

All kinds of art activities are held regularly in the District, bringing a rich artistic air to the port metropolis of Kaohsiung and a new tide of southern art in Kaohsiung. The entire area was being readied for the impending Easter weekend with temporary kiosks being set up. The western railway line, which previously brought goods to the docks, has now become Kaohsiung's busiest cycling trail, and amazing works of art await discovery in the District's public spaces.

The Pier 2 art centre also has quite a few bistros, bars and fine dining centres. A walk along the waterfront brought me to the Kaoshuing Music Centre, located in 27 acres of prime real estate, opened in 2021. Spanish architecture firm MADE IN designed the center which consists of the Wave Tower, Coral Zone, Whale Bridge, Dolphin Walk and Live Warehouse. By the time I got through these the lights had come in and the waterfront looked spectacular.

It was time to return to rest the weary body. I took the Light Rail to the Great Harbour Bridge. However, before I walked back to the hotel, I turned into a restaurant in Pier 2 art centre for dinner of lentil soup and French Fries.