Longshan Temple 龍山寺 (aka Lungshan and Mengjia 艋舺龍山寺) is the oldest and most well-known temple in all of Taiwan. What’s truly wonderful about it, is that despite being a major tourist destination, Longshan Temple retains it’s charm and genuineness by remaining a place of daily worship. The area around Longshan can be quite interesting as well, and features traditional markets, calligraphers, traditional medicine shops, fortune tellers, and a place called Snake Alley. All these reasons and more are why Longshan Temple is on my list of must see places in Taipei.
Throngs of Buddhists and Daoists pack Longshan Temple in Taipei on Chinese Lunar New Year 2007.
ERRKKKK…. SCRATCH…. GRIND…… HALT!
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Well… I actually started writing this blog post about a month ago. I haven’t been able to finish it because a huge project just fell into my lap. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), the new project will be taking A LOT of my time over the next few months. (I can’t tell you about it now, but when it’s released, I’ll be making lots of noise about it!)
So that means for this specific blog post and the general style of all the posts over the next few months will be a bit shorter. Usually, I spend up to 10 hours preparing a post. (That’s why I usually only post once a month or so.) I like digging deeply into my subjects and finding all kinds of information to give to you when I write about something. I also spend a lot of time editing and processing the images that you see here. But, at least for the short-term, I won’t be able to do that. I’ll still try to post some photos every month or so (And I’m sitting on LOTS and LOTS that I haven’t shown anyone), but the writing and research I put into the post will have to be quite abbreviated… sorry.
Longshan Mengjia Temple 艋舺龍山寺
Many of the following images were taken during the first day of Chinese New Year, a really great day to visit this temple.
Chinese Lunar New Year 2011 at Longshan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan.
Chinese Lunar New Year 2007 at Longshan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan.
Praying at Lungshan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan is considered to be very lucky on the first day of Chinese Lunar New Year. Many people burn incense or light candles as they pray to the various deities of the temple.
A woman places an incense stick in a smokey caldron at Longshan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan.
Three women pray while holding incense to their foreheads at Taipei Taiwan's Longshan Temple.
Longshan Temple is surrounded by modern buildings. A mirrored building on the one side makes for some interesting contrast between old and new building styles.
Buddhist monks and lay people chant at an early morning service at Longshan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan.
Praying at Lungshan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan is considered to be very lucky on the first day of Chinese Lunar New Year. Many people burn incense as they pray to the various deities of the temple.
Not really offerings, all the food and beverages put on the tables at Longshan Temple are there to absorb blessings. Later they are re collected and eaten by the person who put them there.
A man prays with incense in his hands as other kneel and recite religious chants inside Longshan Temple.
It's always good lucky to visit the temple, especially at Chinese New Year. Chinese Lunar New Year 2007.
Although Chinese New Year is an interesting time to visit, stopping by on a quieter day allows one to reflect on the beautiful architecture and details.
Snake Alley
Snake Alley is well a known tourist stop. The shops in it sell a very strange variety of goods. Everything from Buddhist prayer beads to sex toys to very fresh snake blood can be bought in stores adjacent to each other.
Ear cleaning?
You can find more information on visiting Longshan Temple and Snake Alley using Taiwan Adventures Online Travel Guide.
Cheers,
-neil
Neil Wade's Photography Blog 
I was wondering when this would show up. Looks great Neil, very nice set
Thanks Darren!
Great photos and information. I would like to vist there,,,,so colorful!
Great pictures, Neil. You do really nice work. It’s nice also to have the captions with them to give us viewing them some information about what we are seeing. This is the first time I have seen your blogs and I am very impressed. Makes me think about my memories when I was there.
Thank you, Lori!
Hi Neil, I really love your photos! May I ask what is your camera setup and what lenses were these photos mostly shot with? Do you like to use primes?
Hope you’d be kind enough to share. I’ve been using a D80 and kit lens for several years now and have been looking to upgrade. Thanks!
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Neil, I love your photos and your blog was one of the reasons I was so excited to be returning to Taiwan last month.
One quibble though: Longshan is the oldest temple in Taipei (I think), but not the oldest in Taiwan. Apparently that’s the Tianhou Gong in Penghu and as is to be expected from the respective dates of Han settlement, there are a number of older temples in Tainan and other places down south.
Sorry to be a stickler – congratulations on the project and hope to see more posts and more great photos nonetheless.
Thanks A-Hao. You’re right. I must have miswrote that.
Cheers.
Great pictures, thanks for sharing. The one of the monks is particularly atmospheric for me. You’ve really captured the feel of the place.
You forgot to mention all the 「小吃」、「茶坊」、and other more blatant houses of ill repute in the area too!
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