Dragon and Tiger Pagodas Audio Guide

Dragon and Tiger Pagodas: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Dragon and Tiger Pagodas

   Welcome to the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, known locally as Lónghǔ Tǎ, written 龍虎塔. You are on the shore of Lotus Pond in Zuoying District, in the city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. Two brightly colored towers rise here, and each one is shaped like a creature: one a dragon, one a tiger. Both are seven storeys tall, and both are among the most recognizable sights in Kaohsiung. The entrances are the first thing you will notice. Each tower's doorway is the open mouth of its animal, crouching low as if it had just settled down beside the water. Seen from above, the dragon and the tiger appear to lie in the pond. The yellow walls, red columns and orange roof tiles make the towers glow against the lake and the sky. Over the next few minutes we will look at who built these towers and why, how the architect was chosen in an unusual way, what to see inside, and the meaning of walking in through a dragon and out through a tiger. Take a moment to look at those two open mouths first, because they are where the story begins.

2. 02

   A Temple's Answer: How Dragon and Tiger Pagodas Were Built

   Lotus Pond was opened as a public park in 1951, and temples and halls had stood nearby long before that. The Dragon and Tiger Pagodas came later. In 1974, according to tradition, the god Baosheng Dadi gave instructions that the towers should be built. He is the Daoist god of medicine, and he is honored at Ciji Temple, which stands by the pond. The pagodas were commissioned by that temple and finished in 1976, at a spot about 700 meters from the Spring and Autumn Pavilions. The choice of designer is a story in itself. The temple did not hold a competition. Instead, it took out a list of architects, called out their names one by one, and cast divination blocks, the crescent-shaped wooden pieces used in Taiwanese temples to ask the gods yes-or-no questions. The answer pointed to Zheng Guangcan, who also ran the Golden Garden Hotel. Across the pond, Qiming Hall had been finished a little earlier and was chosen by the very same method. Zheng Guangcan was named for that one as well. So these two towers are the work of one architect, picked by the gods through a toss of wooden blocks. They ended up as some of the most iconic buildings in Kaohsiung.

3. 03

   Dragon in, Tiger Out: The Meaning of Dragon and Tiger Pagodas

   Tradition says there is a right way to visit the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. You enter through the mouth of the dragon and leave through the mouth of the tiger. Doing it in that order is believed to bring good fortune and keep misfortune away. In Taiwan, the dragon is regarded as the most auspicious of the zodiac animals, and the tiger as the most fearsome. The names carry older meanings from imperial China. A dragon gate was the gate through which the names of successful candidates passed in the civil service examinations. The tiger gate is linked to the walk of condemned prisoners toward their place of execution. So walking in through the dragon and out through the tiger is a symbolic journey from honor and luck toward the shedding of bad fortune. The towers are also known as a feng shui power spot. Seven storeys carries meaning too. The architecture follows the Buddhist idea of the seven-tiered pagoda. The twin towers are designed as mirror images, which is why the whole composition feels so balanced beside the water.

4. 04

   Inside Dragon and Tiger Pagodas: Murals, Stairs and Lake Views

   Inside, the walls are covered with painted scenes and reliefs. You will find the Twenty-four Filial Exemplars, a classic set of stories about devotion to parents. There are also depictions of the Ten Courts of Hell, a vivid picture of the afterlife as imagined in Chinese folk belief. The 12 sages and a scene of the heavenly court of the Jade Emperor with his generals appear as well. Together they work like a storybook in pictures, with virtue, judgment and heaven all along your path. The pagodas are climbed on foot by staircase, and visitors can go up as far as the fifth floor. From the towers you look out over Lotus Pond. Lotus flowers are planted there as an auspicious plant, and in early summer they bloom around the pagodas. If you stand between the dragon and the tiger, you can look across to Ciji Temple, the temple that built them. The pond itself has changed over time. It once covered about 72 hectares, and through reclamation and reorganization it shrank to about 42 hectares. The pagodas were built during that period. Today they are a favorite stop, and a travel feature by CNN singled them out as a place to see at the lake.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   As you leave, think about how much is packed into these two towers: a god's instruction, a draw from a list of architects, and a path from a dragon's mouth to a tiger's mouth. Before you go, you might look back at the pair from a little distance, and watch how the colors of the towers reflect in the water. Lotus Pond has more to offer around the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. The Spring and Autumn Pavilions are about 700 meters away, Qiming Hall stands on the opposite shore, and Ciji Temple is in view from between the two towers. If you are curious, compare how each of these buildings sits against the water, and ask yourself which one the lake seems to be showing off the most. Each of them has its own stories to tell.