On to the Traditional Arts Cultural Center

And here I am in Taiwan, working on this blog after a day at work and a walk home, smiling into the mirror as a friend recently suggested. Today's post will show you some of the things I saw in Ilan. You will see that there is a Japanese influence in some of these images. Sadly, I didn't write down the information about the sights I saw, so I can't give the historical background on much, if any of what you will see in the images. As always, "tour" and aways had to run to catch up. The tour didn't last longer than 20 minutes and the rest of the time I mostly wandered the center on my own, looking at everything I could take in.
Ever since I was a teen, I have been fascinated with wood and tried carving a walking stick once when camping at Mohican State Park in Ohio. The wood carving you see here is part of the ceiling in a building at the center. I do remember hearing the guide say that the building reflected both Chinese and Taiwanese architecture and that was due to rebuilding. It's a good thing they didn't give us a test after the tour as I would have been one they would have frowned and shook their heads at in disappointment. Next we visited a temple on the property. Although I wasn't hugely impressed with this temple, it did have some interesting artifacts such as this drum and a beautiful old bell which somehow I managed to overlook in photography, even though I got a couple close up shots of sections of it.
There was also a museum there, which had many artifacts and even some "simulations" of what life might have been like there at that time. Although I took many photographs, there isn't room here to show you all of them. Since the exhibits were all interesting in the museum, the photographs simply document what I saw. Here are a few of the ancient (or at least "quite old") relics on display. I have learned that the Taiwanese considered calligraphy to be one of the highest forms of art at one time. What you see here is likely a log or journal of some sort and not meant to be an art form in itself, but the skill of the calligrapher was always something in which great pride was taken. It looks as if this blog about the Traditional Arts Center will need to be continued another day. As it turns out, I need a break and have an appointment to go out on the town tonight to have something made for my granddaughter Taryn's upcoming birthday. Stay tuned though as you will likely enjoy some of the fascinating things I saw that day in Ilan. There are some incredible puppets coming up and some sculptor's at work as well as craftsmen making calligraphy brushes by hand.