Young Tong Hall, Green Roof Temple and Monk Fruit

　　The first stop of Dakeng's ecotourism tour was to visit "Jheng Jyue Buddhist Temple."  It was built in 1926. Originally it was built with grass and it is a Buddhist place for female believers exclusively. While walking toward the gate, you may find that the well trimmed grass with green and exuberant is exactly matched with the the black green eaves of the temple. Jheng Jyue Buddhist Temple has been ascribed to Guanyin Gate, so Da SyongTemple is also named Yuan Tong Temple, which enshrines Guanshiyinpusa in Chinese or Aualokitesvara Bodhisattva in English.

　　When you arrive at the gate, you can see a Guanyin-Buddha and several clay-Buddhas around the god, all of which are sitting. Therefore, some people call this temple as "Zuoshan Temple" or "Sitting Mountain Temple" translated literally.　

　　Guangqin old monk took up residence in Jheng Jyue Temple before. He visited here and meditated without eating and resting at that time. It is said that a group of animals gave him fruit for eating while he was meditating, so people also call Guangqin monk as "Monk Fruit" in an informal way.

The particular green roofs in Jheng Jyue Temple

Jheng Jyue Buddhist Temple belongs to Young Tong Hall

Guangqin monk's Shariputra

This is Aualokitesvara Bodhisattva

Eight Trigrams Furnaces and kitchen closet

　　Walking to the kitchen, you will see a big furnace. We were all curious how it was made. Took a careful look. We found there was not only a furnace, but eight furnaces. After the presenter's explanation, it was Eight Trigrams Furnaces, a treasure in Jheng Jyue Buddhist Temple. It is an ancestral monk's intelligence and is still used to cook vegetarian food in the kitchen. One meal that cooked with Eight Trigrams Furnaces can serve for a thousand people's banquets. One kitchen accommodates about 10 people. The cooks can talk while they are cooking, so the meal is full of human sentiment.

　　As implied by the name, the "Eight Trigrams Furnaces" means eight furnaces forming the shape of eight trigrams. The Eight Trigrams Furnaces show eight angles and have four big furnaces and four small furnaces. There is a faucet on each furnace. The fire of each furnace is independent but the cooks can share with the sauce. The Eight Trigrams Furnaces are convenient, organized, unique and practical without occupying the other space. Every second one has a concave hole for the cook to stand on. If there are not enough cooks, one cook will be responsible for two furnaces. After Master Shanzheng served as a host three decades ago, the temple's incense got more flourishing. The temple was reconstructed. Believers from everywhere came to pray the well-known and prominent the Aualokitesvara Bodhisattva   at temple fair three times a year. Many of them decided to eat vegetarian food in the temple.  To solve the meal problem, Master Shanzheng created today's  "Eight Trigrams Furnaces."

　　Offsprings benefit from the ancestor's intelligence. Even though a thousand people have the meal, there will have no difficulty in serving the food on time. After the 921 earthquake, many Dakeng's areas lacked water and electricity, even the gas. When Ci Ji Foundation came to the disaster areas, they also used the convenience of Eight Trigrams Furnaces to solve the victims' living problems. However, a fly in the ointment is the dining room was too small. Luckily, the intelligent old monk discovered a special kitchen closet. It is not normal! It is a two sided kitchen closet. The most special function is when the food is ready, place it in this closet and the people in the dining room can readily take food out from here. It is so convenient!

　　Although the residents lack resources, the gas or natural gas has become a necessary appliance in a general family.  Eight Trigrams Furnaces still take useless wood as the fuel, which become the predecessor for recycling. The idea of  Eight Trigrams Furnaces is rarely seen in Taiwan. The  Eight Trigrams Furnaces, Dakeng's  historical relic, are still used for cooking by lighting woods every day. It is Dakeng's vivid honey.  

Eight Trigrams Furnaces has fume extractor

The lighted wood in the Eight Trigrams Furnaces

The presenter told us the story of Eight Trigrams Furnaces

Everyone was curious about Eight Trigrams Furnaces

Is there any special function on Eight Trigrams Furnaces

 Each furnace has a faucet

 This is two-sided kitchen closet

The kitchen and the dining room are communicable

Gujing "a well with the drum's shape " and Yuban " the percussion instrument"

　　After listening the introduction of Eight Trigrams Furnaces, we reached to their former place to drink water. Looked down at the ground, there was a hole with the drum's shape. Originally it was a well, called " Gujing." Don't look down at it. It was a clean and clear well for people to drink. Some people came here on purpose to take water! It is a pity that nobody uses this well today because the water in the well is too low, people are afraid of falling down. The other reason is that the quality of water in the well is not as good as before and it is replaced by the tap-water so that people don't take water hard as before. 

　　On the well's back wall is  a special coin with the cloud's shape. There is a protruding circle in the middle where there is a little hammer. This is Yuban "the percussion instrument." Originally it is a clock that is used to assemble everyone for eating. At the moment it is not the right time to have the meal, so everyone needs to control oneself to knock the clock. It is always silent in the temple, so a person would play the Yuban to call everyone for eating.

 Gujing is a place for ancient people to drink

Yuban is a clock to call people for having the meal

Jiu Bu Siang or "Nine unlikenesses" translated literally

　　Later we came to the other side of the temple. Here is Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva for people's praying. The presenter asked us," Do you see any special thing?" Teacher Jheng said, " Isn't there a rectangular box with many buttons?" It looks very old. What is it for?" Teacher Li said, " It was a radio during 1960-70, I saw it when I was a child." But the presenter wanted us to see the Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva's guard. She asked us, "What is it like?" Then all of us started to discuss it. Yijie said it was like a lion. Yawen said it was like a dog. Zihsing said it was like a Chinese unicorn. Yinsyuan said what the above said were not all correct, The answer for Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva's guard is  "Di Ting," the guard's name. Some people call it "nine unlikenesses." Yijie had lots of interest and said, " I must check it carefully at home."

　After Yijie and Weiling looked up the information about Jiu Bu Siang, they found the result--Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva's guard is a monster like a lion but it doesn't exist on earth. Its name is Di Ting, also called " Shan Ting." People said that Di Ting had the god's power of hearing people's prayers on earth and listen to Shihfang-Buddha's  words. It is a pioneer. Originally it was a white dog to accompany Jin Ciao Jyue Si for studying the god's power. Later it became the god's guard. The better ear is straight up to listen to Shihfang-Buddha's  words and the other ear is toward down to hear the prayers from good and evil people. The legend said that it can use its ear to tell a person good or bad. It is really interesting! But its appearance is so odd. It has deer horns, camel's head, crab's eyes, horse's mouth, cow's ears, sheep's moustache, lion's hair, carp's scales, snake's body, eagle's claw and tiger's palm. It looks like a dragon in one of the legends imagined by our ancestors but there was no final conclusion for its shape. Therefore, there is a saying, “ Nine likenesses, nine unlikenesses.” This is the origin of Jiu Bu Siang “nine unlikenesses.” After looking up the information, I finally understood the “life experiences” of Jiu Bu Siang .　

A radio during 1960-70

Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva's guard, Jiu Bu Siang