We took the train to Wong Tai Sin, it had just stopped raining and the sun was peaking out. Despite the heat and humidity, it was shaping up to be a pretty nice day!
Wong Tai Sin Temple is the largest Taoist temple in Hong Kong and has an interesting history. Today, Wong Tai Sin is a popular god, sought out by people asking help with finance and business matters, or have concerns about their health and other spiritual matters. Here you will see people practicing Kau Cim. This is when a person will light incense sticks, kneel before the main altar, make a wish, and shake a bamboo cylinder containing fortune sticks until a stick falls out. They will then take the stick that falls out to a fortune teller who will then interpret this for them. Sometimes they will visit a couple for verification. Like a second opinion I suppose. Behind the temple was something of a strip mall of fortune tellers and palm readers.
Kayiu and I got some incense and made wishes to the gods ourselves. We didn’t practice Kau Cim though. It was soothing hearing the sounds of all the bamboo sticks being shaken, and despite the crowds it was a very peaceful place.
After our wishes to the gods and our incense offerings, we took a stroll around the temple. It was beautiful. One of the more impressive features for me was the huge relief sculpture angled up the entrance stair case. The sculpture is of several flying dragons above a mountain scape with one large dragon at the top with his mouth open wide. One of those, “had to be there” moments as it was pretty hard to capture with a photo.
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