I had an unusual experience when I was in Taipei, Taiwan while visiting my grand-daughter and family a year ago. I was on the 5th floor of a tall building, sleeping in a ‘capsule’ hostel. Taipei is a lot like Manhattan with really tall buildings and lots of people and traffic. It was about 4AM and all of a sudden I felt the entire building sway to one side and then the other! I woke up and realized that this was an earthquake.
As it swayed back and forth (I hadn’t opened my eyes yet) I had a vision of three old men: the one in the center had a dark beard that went to the ground, and the three ancient men were holding the island of Taiwan like a baby and gently rocking it. It was so vivid … then all movement stopped.
I opened my eyes, turned on my laptop and checked on the USGS website but no earthquake had showed up yet. So I went to another site, still no earthquake. Then I went back to USGS and there it was, a 6.5 out in the ocean just east of Taipei.
The next day, no one even mentioned that earthquake. Not one person!
On my 12 hour flight home I sat next to a Taiwanese man who lived in the U.S. and we talked for a long time on that long flight. As I was showing him my photos of Taipei – I had taken a lot of photos of the Buddhist temples – I asked him, who were those three guys on the top of many temple gates and inside the temples?
He said they were Taiwan’s protectors! Of course!
Photo by Connie Fisher
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The Beauty of Taipei Taiwan
You might enjoy watching my slideshow while listening to traditional music on this Youtube video. Mute the sound on my slideshow and open this link in another tab or window.
