The primary purpose of this site is to share
information I've acquired in visiting temples in Asia. The
gateway to all Chinese temple information is my Mi-le-fo
site. I am now living in Shenzhen, China, which--although it is
part of the mainland--is right on the Hong Kong border. So I
have divided my Chinese temple experiences into three parts: the handful
of temples in Shenzhen,
the over-600 temples in Hong
Kong, and the countless temples in China
outside of these two areas. (When I go to Taiwan, a separate
section will be added for these.) There's even a small section
on Chinese temples in America!
Japanese temples are in a section of their own
called Furudera;
to date, I have visited far more temples in Japan (hundreds!) and am
busy building pages on these. Ultimately, Furudera will include The Old Tokaido,
Yamato,and Shikoku Pilgrimage sections of a Fall, 2001, Aki Meguri,
as well as visits to the 100 Kannon Temples of Japan, being the Saigoku
33, the Bando 33, and the Chichibu 34 Pilgrimages. In
addition, I completed six small pilgrimages within Tokyo in the summer
of 2004; these are there, too.
The huge number of temples in Hong Kong gave me an idea. You
can read all about it at the prospectus for
The Hong Kong Temple
Project, a survey of every
temple in Hong Kong.
Deep Asia: Reflections on the deep culture of
East Asia
In order to explore all these temples, I have been living in
Asia (first Japan, now China) since 1997 (with a hiatus in 2002 and 2003).
Deep Asia chronicles some experiences of the deep
cultural underpinnings of Japan and China, especially their religion, history,
literature, and art.
The Shenzhen section is already in progress; China and Japan are
in the planning stages.
I have spent a great deal of my life writing, but very little of what I have
written has ever been "published." Until now! A Letter
from James keeps family and friends updated on my activities; this is a
replacement for my old blogs. Much of my writing centers around religion;
these articles are collected as Of
This and That. When people send questions, I try to answer them in
The
Hot Seat; other interesting letters are seen in The
Temple Guy's Got Mail. While writing, I often find information I think
others might be interested in; this is summarized in my Linkin'
Log. Funny--but significant--bits are in Holy
Humor. Finally, my (currently inactive) Calendar
of Sacred events is meant to bring a daily connection to "things
unseen."
I have been creating images
using camera, darkroom, and--more recently-- computer for over 35
years. You can see temple-related images at Sacred
Sights, and others at One
Good Shot.
In January 2004, I began blogging for the
first time, under the alias The Barefoot
Fool. This was a great experience, and helped me
focus my thinking about China.
Dissatisfied with the format, I converted from
the Fool to The Temple Guy, with a blog called The Temple Gate.
This, too, while interesting, was ultimately not meeting my
needs. I have realized that I am not as interested in blogging
as I am in page-building.
So the blogs have become history; my old blog
site has become a guide to new pages on The Temple Guy. Some of
the more significant posts will be given pages of their own, as
freestanding articles.
Meanwhile, feel free to browse the old blogs at your leisure.
(They are also searchable.)
Extras: Materials outside of The
Temple Guy's main mission
Because I have 2 gigabytes to play with, I
occasionally use the space for other projects. Two of these are Aunt Til's
Kids (read this
about access), a page for my family; and Friends,
a collection of photo pages from outings in Shenzhen.
