Beauty and disturbing aspects of the Floating Temple near Saigon – photos

I spent quite a while marvelling at the intricate decoration and architecture of the floating temple. Everywhere you looked was something else to marvel at. The artwork was amazing.

It was a place of wonder and beauty.

But there was a peculiar and disturbing feature. Sitting around at the front of the temple were some vietnamese with cages and bowls of birds and animals. There were baby turtles, fish and all manner of exotic birds. They were all cramped together and looking distressed.

These people did not like their picture being taken.

It seemed that one could earn good karma by paying these people for the release of these poor animals. That seemed a bit bizarre to me. What about all the bad karma these people accrued by catching and imprisoning the creatures in the first place? I felt like smashing the cages and releasing the lot of them but…