On Saturday, October 27th, a group of five English Teaching Assistants and one of our guests attended the 2013 Kinmen Wind Lion Tour. We started our journey at the bus station in Shamei, and received cards to gather stamps from each site with a wind lion god statue. The tour leaders then guided us to a golf cart that we shared with a few other families.
The first wind lion god that we saw saved a child from dying. The story is that a young boy was drowning in a lake. The wind lion god witnessed his struggle, and called upon the other gods to rescue him. A god dressed all in white pulled the boy from the water. Today, that boy is still alive and over forty-years-old. The statue itself has endured a few hardships over time (a bomb blew off its tail), but it is still standing. Another fascinating held the sun under one paw, the moon under another, and had a mischievous tilt to his head. He had the nickname, "He Who Does Things Cutely," and people placed offerings of baked goods and candy before him.
Another wind lion god possessed parts from each animal of the zodiac. He had the legs of a tiger, the teeth of a rabbit, the belly of a pig, and a sword with a handle that doubled as a snake. He stood in a beautiful park full of Buddha statues. One had candy wedged into its mouth. Another towered over six feet tall. A few clutched yuanbao or other forms of currency. But a final wind lion stood out. Most wind lion gods look strong and fierce, or cute and benevolent, this last one looked absolutely terrifying. He was painted blue, had two long rows of white teeth, and had two perfectly white eyes. Although he wore a flower-patterned cape, his menacing look could easily scare someone. However, like his counterparts, he protects people who offered him gifts of money and candy.
We also visited a lovely stone zodiac carving in the shape of a circle, with the animals surrounding a yin-yang. A tour guide told us that if we started at the very top (imagine the zodiac like a clock face, with the rat at 12:00), touched each animal in a clockwise direction, and then touched "our" animal, we would have good luck. We each took a turn-most of us touching the sheep.
In total, we visited seven wind lion gods. When we returned to Shamei bus station, we stood in line to exchange our stamp cards. It turns out that we were the last six on the tour to exchange our stamp cards, making the total of tourists to visit the wind lions a whopping 800! The tour guides had exactly six packs of wind lion god playing cards remaining."You are so lucky!" one of the workers proclaimed. They asked to have a picture taken with us, the last recipients of the last playing cards on the last wind lion god tour of the season.