Fun Times

Looking back, it can be said that I was really out of it last Monday. I’m much better now and the worst of it was simply on a certain previous Monday. It being Easter, and specifically today, Anzac Day, many people get a loving break from work and school.

The Bendigo Easer Festival was on over the Easter holidays and I was lucky enough to personally go to it. While there I checked out the Golden Dragon Museum which told of Chinese culture and I came across an image of a god who has two attendants.

Lightened photo of the god

 No name was given to this god or of the attendants, nor was there much information on this god. One vital piece of information was given under the image of the god, that he is the god of building. He looked familiar and I thought taking a photo would be a good idea, but sadly there is no recognition of the identity of this god.

Sadly, flash photography wasn’t allowed and there was poor lighting, making the photo not the best that could have been taken and having little information on a god or his attendants doesn’t help either.  I’ll get back at this later in this post.

Getting a ticket at the Gold Dragon Museum also serves as a ticket to the Yin Yuan Gardens. Within said gardens there are statues of all of the Eight Immortals, a highly popular group whose faces I got to see in statue form for the first time. This got me thinking, out of the Eight Immortals Lan Caihe is who I’m most interested in and I do not actually know why. Maybe it is the eccentric behaviour, maybe it the fact that Lan Caihe is the patron of gardeners (and hence most appropriate out of the Eight Immortals for me to go to). Whatever it may be, time will tell.

Looking around and being entertained at the Bendigo Easter Festival, for me it proved interesting. Although  Easter is a Christian holiday, I saw little sign of Christianity, there's even a temple to Guanyin to which I got to pay my respects to.

Going back to the image of the god I saw, I tried to find some information on who he is. The best conclusion I can come to is that the type of god is Cheng Huang (or City/Town God), with Cheng Huang being protective town gods and the attendants known as Tu Di (or Earth Gods) who work under the Cheng Huang. I’m not 100% sure on this and if anyone can help, that’ll be great.