A Wandering Chameleon: Rainy Saturday Trip to Man Mo Temple and Sham Shui Po

Today, my usual Saturday travelling schedule was majorly disrupted by a scheduled visit to my professor's home during the afternoon. But here was my agenda anyways:

Man Mo Temple (文武廟) in Sheung Wan
Visit to professor's home
Dragon Centre (西九龍中心) in Sham Shui Po

Here are some photos of my visit to Man Mo Temple, a Taoist temple erected during the Qing Dynasty and dedicated to the popular God of Literature, Man Tai (文帝) or Man Cheong (文昌) and the God of War, Mo Tai (武帝) or Kwan Tai (關帝) or for those of you familiar with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu (關羽). From the outside, you can see a walled temple complex consisting of a main temple dedicated to Man Tai and Mo Tai in the centre and a smaller chapel of sorts for other various Chinese deities.

Here is the interior of the adjoining chapel, with lanterns strung with worshippers' wishes for good luck.

And now some photos of the main temple. Here are some photos of the entrance doorway:

And just inside the doorway is a placard written in Chinese calligraphy: 神威普佑 (Divine might blesses universally). The temple today is maintained by a Taoist organization called the Tung Wah (東華) group and it was previously involved with relief fundraising for a natural disaster during the Qing Dynasty. In gratitude, the Chinese emperor hand wrote the calligraphy for the placard and presented it to Tung Wah, which eventually installed it inside the temple.

Here are some more lanterns with wish cards attached to them. I think they make for quite a stunning visual display!

All around the temple are statues of various Taoist deities with placards that provide brief biographies and their patronage. For example, the sign under the statue of 周倉 (Zhou Cang, according to Wikipedia) explains that prayers for "Restoration of Justice" and "Strengthening of Courage" should be directed to 周倉.

Here is the pen of Man Tai, the God of Literature:

And the halberd-axe of Mo Tai, the God of War:

And some more wish cards; this time, they are attached on so-called "incense spirals" (according to the signs in the temple).

Here are the sedan chairs used to carry the statues of Man Tai and Mo Tai during religious processions:

It also started pouring after I arrived at Man Mo Temple - luckily I brought my raincoat with me. Here is a shot of Sheung Wan under pouring rain:

Afterwards, I went with my other lab-mates to spend the afternoon at our professor's house. Then, I went over to Dragon Centre at Sham Shui Po. The street atmosphere and old buildings of Sham Shui Po really brings back childhood memories of watching those TVB dramas - it's really flashy at night!