Chinatown High

Some people like to bar-hop in their free time, but shamash likes to temple-hop. A self-proclaimed "bohemian god-seeker", I’m hooked on the smoke of incense, the buzz of gold-on-red lacquer, and the high I get from watching the dancing street dragons.

-photos by shamash

Over the past week I must have spent over six hours hanging out at the various Chinese temples in the city “Somewhere in Asia."

What pageantry! There’s the main temple down by the dock, but my favorite is a quiet KwanYin temple set back a ways from the main drag. During the week of Chinese New Year, the tradition is to burn paper money so that the smoke rises to your ancestors in the Other World. They, in turn, bless you with a prosperous new year. Elders give money in small, red envelopes to their children, and offerings of flowers, fruits, and candles are placed at the altar.

One of my favorite pastimes during this time of year is chasing dragons down the streets of

Chinatown

. Sometimes, they climb higher than eight stories to visit those who have invited them, and if you’re lucky you can see them slither through the open stairways of apartment buildings. Last night, as French Contessa and I were in search of red candles, paper money, and moon pies, a golden dragon came running down the street full tilt, its length close to half a block long. Its giant eye flashed red, then white, then red again. It was too fast for me to take a picture. But, if you can’t catch a dragon, you can at least buy buy a small dragon mask, as French Condessa is doing in the photo.

Salvador Dali once said, "I don't do drugs. I am drugs. Take me, I am hallucinogenic."

For me,

Chinatown

is the hallucinogen.

It will always take it, and it will always make me high.

Comments

[moon]

hello,

haven't visited you for some time. and it's nice to be back, hear about your Chinese City Quests.
seems such a gift you are having to live this!

[Leland]

Incredible captures, Shamash! Say hi to the French Contessa for me. Hehe. Hope all's well.

[shamash]

Hi, moon! Yes, it is, indeed, a blessing to live here. The longer I stay, the more I fall in love with the people and culture of this country.

Hey, Leland! I've been following your Phillipine travels, and also love the photo album of THIS country! I'll say hi to French Contessa when she returns from her trip to India. Cheers!

[tish]

oh, I'm *so* envious! you can go outside, where it's warm, and see beautiful things...

it's absolutely freezing here in New England (7 degrees last evening, 14 tonight) and life is unliveable without wool...

BTW, the pics are beautiful :-)