A 土地庙 (temple of god of land) in my hometown, next to the vegetable field on the country road. People took extra bricks and broken tin to build a kneeling altar, candlestick for burning incense, and an earthen stove for burning the best products. Meanwhile, to prevent cars from using the vacant lot as a parking lot, people piled up a few more stakes with bricks.
What's more interesting to me is that if I didn't write the word "land temple", as a kid who grew up in the city, I wouldn't have known about these landmarks even if there were the first few, and even if there were, my mind would only be filled with the smoky, red walls and green tiles that appear in movies and TV shows…
I don't know if this is the building, or I have questions about the meaning of the building itself, I am very curious why this land can become a land temple? Maybe the building itself has no meaning, it can be called this or that, and the gods and Buddhas worshipped can be various. It's like a stage play like Dogville, with just some red spray paint enclosing some space, and what makes it vibrant is the performance of the actors in it. "A powerfulplay goes on, you may contribute a verse" (by walt whitman); or maybe some of the structure of the building itself does make sense, and the place might actually fit the land temple in terms of coordinates, orientation, and topography…
While I was thinking about these things, someone from the township government came by in a hurry to stop them from worshipping and said that the land was farmland and should be torn down!
I guess I was really stupid.
