Taiwan 2024 - iPhone 15 Series, Buddhist Memorial Service

I've always very much enjoyed witnessing, and even sometimes participating in, the cultural practices of faraway societies.  Of course in Mexico there was a lot of that, plus a few missed opportunities.  For example, we were loaded in the back of a pickup one day going to church when I spied a platform someone built about 20 yards off to the side of this dirt road way out in the boonies.  I asked what it was, and they explained that there was a group that mixed their Catholicism with rituals from ancient days before the Catholics took over the place (this would have been before 1500 AD).  These rituals included wild dances with machetes slicing the sky to bring rain.  Would love to have seen that, but only as a fly on the wall with all those machetes swinging around in such a remote area.

Another time we drove down to Nueva Rosita to visit a friend that just had a baby.  She was still in the traditional 40-day bedridden phase, and had a red circle made of ochre placed on the middle of her forehead.  I asked the meaning of such a symbol, and was told what amounted to some superstition that was involved.  Knowing of my interest in all things cultural, they also spoke of a ritual ceremony south of town that was played out by an indigenous tribe in the area.  It took place at night and involved a bonfire and eating of dog meat.  I really wanted to see something like that, but they told me that Mexicans weren't even invited, much less a white guy from the United States.

But with lots of family in Taiwan I have the opportunity to do more than just hear about those things.  In 2001 I was very much a part of my mother-in-law's funeral...very, very interesting.  And here we are in 2024, memorializing her in a yearly Buddhist ceremony.  There were about 150 of us in the crowd under this big tent, who watched and responded to what the monks were doing in the temple on the other side of that wall.  Though I am not a Buddhist by any stretch, I had no problem following the program to honor her memory as the mother of my bride and with respect for her culture.