Lungshan Temple Candles (enlarge photo)

Gold, red and fire ... three things that you're guaranteed to see inside of virtually all temples in Taiwan. Red and gold are colours of good luck and good fortune ... fire is fire, and can be seen any time and any place in the Chinese world.

I found these candles in Taipei's famous Lungshan Temple, and couldn't resist photographing them. Though as I've mentioned, red is very common in temples, I felt that this was one of the best representations of the colour.

I have found it interesting that many of my Taiwanese friends don't especially care for this photos as they associate the candles with death and loss, while at the same time many of my western friends are drawn to this same image because of the strong colours and the foreign-ness of it. Among my western friends, this has been one of my best selling photos.