Sao Mu - first weekend

Florence's Grandmother, on her father's side, was the Matriarch of the Lee family. After the Grandfather died, the Grandmother was force in the extended family for more than 20 years. She was born in the Qing Dynasty time and had bound feet. Foot binding was not banned until 1911 with the founding of the Republic, by that time, Taiwan was controlled by the Japanese. So in her lifetime see had seen, the Qing Dynasty, the Japanese Colonization, the return of Taiwan to China but not democracy in Taiwan. She was a very modern thinker for her time and a devoted Buddhist. Everyone who knew her has something good to say about her.

The trip to her tomb in Southern Taiwan starts with a bus ride from Ilan to Taipei where we joined the tour.

This a fancy bus with 3 microphones for story telling, Karioki, jokes. Also there are video screens for movies and videos of past SaoMu events.

It is about a 5 hour trip from Taipei to Southern Taiwan so there are activities along the way. Like strawberry picking.

But the best activity was that the microphone was passed from one person to another and they each told a story about the Grandmother. The bus left on a Saturday morning and we all stayed in a hotel Saturday night near Tainan. Of course there was a big banquet Saturday night with lots of food(and some drinking).

Sunday morning we went to the tomb and had a ceremony with lots of picture taking.

Before going back, we wandered around the Temple complex, the Buddhists have their own pantheon of saints just like the Catholics.

The Lee family is spread out all over Taiwan, Canada and the US, even after death, the Grandmother still has influence in the family.