Today we travelled to Jingshan, located at the Northern tip of Taiwan. At the first stop we tie dyed cloth with indigo dye, which came from indigo plants. Our instructor showed us how to rubber band Popsicle sticks and chopsticks to the cloth so that it would make different patterns when we dyed it. We had to massage our cloth in the tub of dye for 5 minutes then take it out and let it air dry so that the dye would oxidize causing it to change from green to blue. After waiting 5 minutes we stuck the cloth into a second tub of dye and repeated the process. Once finished, we opened the cloth up to see what patterns we had created. This was a very fun experience and the place that we tie dyed at was very peaceful.

Extracting dye from Indigo leaves

Tubs of dye

Before dyeing

After dyeing

Everyone's cloths hanging to dry

After indigo dyeing, we went to Dharma Drum Mountain. It is an international Buddhist spiritual, cultural, and educational foundation and the complex of monasteries and education centers took 16 years to construct. Dharma Drum Mountain is one of the most influential Buddhist organizations in Chinese Buddhism. The view from the top level of the complex was amazing; you could see Jingshan and the Pacific Ocean. Everything was so green, definitely not like the U.S. Midwest at this time of the year! We ate the lunch they prepared for us; rice, dumplings, noodles, vegetables, soup and watermelon. It was delicious and it gave me another opportunity to master the use of chopsticks. Oh and the best part was that our tour guide wanted us to eat like a dragon.

After DDM we went to the Juming Museum. It was amazing as well. Ju Ming is a renowned Taiwanese artist, known for his sculptures. At the museum we saw sculptures cast from bronze, chiseled from wood, formed from clay, and made of stainless steel. I would not do his work justice if I tried describing it to you all so I will post the pictures I took and let them speak for themselves.

We got back to Taipei just in time for our calligraphy class. This was my first time doing calligraphy and I think I did a descent job. I learned that there are many different ways to write the same Chinese character.