On Assignment: Taiwan

The Cats of Taiwan

My Spiritual Pilgrimage (with cats)

The Author, distracted by an adorable ginger along Taiwan’s cross-island highway — all photos by author

Friends and fellow cat-people — a confession.

In April I embarked on two month journey around Taiwan at the behest of Hong Kong based publisher Things Asian Press.

My mission: To explore a different temple every day, meditating, gathering insight and data for a book entitled Taiwan Pilgrimage (my sixth book about Isla Formosa).

It was a whirlwind adventure. I returned at the end of May with 60,000 words of raw notes and a 60-gigabytes flash card filled with high-res images (and nearly as many photos shot quick-n-dirty with my mobile phone).

As for what wisdom I gained, well…I have six months to edit raw notes and memories into a marketable book about Taiwan’s amazing spiritual landscape, how the trip changed me, and what I learned about myself along the way.

But going through the digital mountain of photos I shot along the way already reveals an undeniable truth:

I am easily distracted by cats!

Colony Cat on Xiaoliuqiu

I can’t (or at least I shouldn’t) say what percentage of the aforementioned 60-gig flash drive contain cat images. But I do know that the publishing contract tacked to my bulletin board just below the calendar marking the approaching deadline obliges me in real and legally binding terms to turn in a manuscript about Taiwan’s religious and spiritual scene.

Not about cats.

And while my long-suffering publisher will probably accept a few cat photos relevant to the mission, such as this pretty girls trying to snooze in a box at the Putian Temple complex in Hsinchu…

Temple cat at Hsinchu’s Putian Temple

…Or this gorgeous striped kitty tasked with guarding incense and ghost money at Taipei’s Zhinan temple…

Temple kitty at Zhinan Temple, Taipei

…Outside of one very specific chapter in which your humble author visits a temple in a Taipei City suburb that’s become known locally as a leader in feline rescue to offer tribute and pray for the souls of recently deceased cat companions…

Making offerings to the gods at Sanchong Yitian Temple

…they will not be amused if I turn in a final draft containing nothing but cat photos and the stories behind them.

Cat who lives at my favorite hot spring in Yamingshan, Northern Taipei

Which is a shame, really. Because as I sort Catness worthy cat photos from thousands of images of temples and ceremonies, I keep coming across pictures of cats with stories to tell.

These two, for example:

Shopfront in Tainan — the pink letters on the window read “be polite — don’t bang or shout!”

Wandering through an alleyway in Tainan (a city whose roots date back to the late Ming dynsaty) early one morning, I noticed this pampered store-kitty staring intently out the window of a closed store selling art and other knick-knacks.

She took no notice of me, her gaze fixed on one point across the narrow alley.

Tainan Shopcat

I looked across the alley and saw that she was deeply engaged in a feline stare-off with this guy:

Tainan Alleycat

Allies? Frenemies? We may never know. But I returned a few minutes later, and the stare-off continued.

Tainan alleycat — the stareoff continues!

This is just one of the feline dramas I encountered during my Taiwan Pilgrimage. Over the course of the next several months as I race against deadline, I hope to share a few of them with Catness readers.

Tricolor kitty in Penghu

Along the way I’ll be sharing some useful travel tips for cat lovers who may be considering their own cat-filled adventures to Taiwan! (I’ll also be offering suggestions for fellow cat-loving Buddhists considering reincarnating in cat form.)

Interested in following the journey? Follow me on Medium!

Joshua Samuel Brown is the author of 17 books, including multiple Lonely Planet Guides. Other Catness Stories by Joshua Samuel Brown include:

Letting Go of Ursula: Servants of Bastet Reflect on the Passing of Their Magical Cat

Taming Our Punk Rock Cat: We adopt a feral feline only to discover he has a backstory — and family — the next block over.