A look inside these structures

Elsewhere, I have written about the balance between the drum and the bell, noting that whereas "the Bell with its continuous tone fading into silence signifies Eternity," we can see that "the Drum with its tick-tick-tick signifies Time..."

Most folk temples mount both bell and drum on a small, portable, easel-sized tower.  Buddhist temples generally separate them, either in towers as here, or hanging on either end of the main hall.  This temple has many elements more like a Buddhist than a folk temple (including the presence of the Eighteen Arhats and manifestations of reverence to "A-mi-to-fo," the Amitabha Buddha of Pure Land Buddhism).

The Drum Tower

The Bell Tower

Outside (viewed from Bell Tower)

This shrine room next to the Sun-and-Moon Ponds was also open that day, and a monk chanted sutras.  The images are of the "Three Sages of the West," Amitabha Buddha (A-mi-to-fo), Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva (Guan Yin Pusa) and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva (Da Shi Zhi Pusa).  The "West" in their title means the "Pure Land of the Western Heaven," the goal of Pure Land practitioners, who chant the name "Amitofo" in hopes of entering the Western Pure Land.