My Visit to The Fa Tzang Chinese Temple

Fa Tzang Temple is located in Brgy. Villa Monte along shopping area in Bacolod City Negros Occidental. To be honest I’ve known this Chinese temple since I was a kid and I don't have any idea that this temple is open for public viewing. For the past 31 years of being a citizen of Bacolod. How I wasn't able to explore this wonderful place and gather some information about Chinese culture. But when I tried to collect some ideas in web about this place, it seems no enough information from the community. Mostly are photographs and no additional context was added to their post. I am so glad that I will be the one that can provide certain information though it is more on my personal impressions. I am not sure if there is a tour guide inside or someone can answer your questions about the place. Because during my visit yesterday there are no in charge or someone that I can talk about the place only the two security guards are available.

Before entering the temple I asked the guard if what are those available sections or part of the temple which I can visit. Because I know some of the rules before entering the sacred places, it is not advisable to do if you are not familiar with their culture. I only learned some things about Chinese / Taoist / Hindu temple etiquette when I started watching videos about vlogs that talks about culture presentations from different countries. But the sad thing during my visit the guards really don't know about my questions. So as sign of respect to the temple I decided not to go inside and take only pictures from the open door. I know that you should ask permission from the monk before entering the room where the Goden Budhha of the temple is displayed.

Same with the Indian culture like the totem pole that are standing in front of every Indian houses. Chinese temple is also guided by lion structures to protect the place from negative elements. As far as I can remember when my friend told me who is a Filipino-Chinese that lion is a son of the Dragon and it is a guardian of doors. There are two sets of lion sitting in both side of the temple that serves as watchers one is male and other one is female. The lion is the protector of its community and people can speak their prayers to ask for protections.

Fa Tzang Bridge is located left beside the temple with approximate length of seven meters and three meters wide. The bridge is an access going to the Lumbini Park with approximate land area of 700 square meters. The Lumbini garden is well maintained from landscape, trimmed lawn, clean surroundings, no presence of flying insects like mosquitoes, and plants are growing bountifully.

There is a shed at the middle of the garden with similar design to the temple from color, details, and styles. If you come closer and look up to the ceiling you can see the images of God's. Which I am not familiar with, I know some God's in Hindu like Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer. But in Chinese I am only familiar with Buddha and some of the emperor from different dynasty. As I really want to feed myself with information sometimes we need to refrain ourselves from exploring beyond boarders. Due to in availability of source that can provide answers to our questions. Because there are some scope that we can't handle and out of our privilege. Instead we choose to use our senses to create our own ideas and explain things on how our mind classify the information's we collected.