Main Ridge of Tin Hau Temple
The main ridge of Tin Hau Temple is a full of small sculptures and painting. These kind of ridge is called HuaJi (花脊). It is different from the first roof top and the second roof top that the second roof top do not have the dragons.
At the top of of the main ridge, there is two dragon facing at the ball with red color. Ancient Chinese call the red ball as “Pearl” which may also stand for the sun because of its red color. Moreover, the color of the “pearl” in the second roof is dark blue which may represent the moon. There is also some wave under the dragon. This set of decoration is called “Dragon playing with a pearl” (雙龍戲珠) which is a very traditional study in China. However, according to some researches and the detail design of the dragon, we can conclude that the dragon is belong to the original temple, there might be some people add it to the temple after the temple constructed for a period of time. One of the biggest reason is because the style and the handcraft of the dragons are not similar to other temples. The dragon is detailed paint and craft which is similar to western design.
At the middle of the main ridge, there are full of clay sculptures. It is the key element to the HuaJi (花脊). Most of them are representing the Chinese myths or famous stories. The theme of the stories are usually about the Chinese traditional morality. Besides, the sculptures may also represent the wishes for the whole family and to the god. Temple can also be a place for the family gathering and celebrate the special festivals. Due to this, the sculptures also represent the joy and happiness of the people.
The stories are usually separate into a few scenes. The scenes number are usually odd number. Most of them contain nine scenes. For example, the sculptures at the second roof is talking about a women go to the war as an army general. We can see a women riding on a white horse and dress as a general.
At the bottom of the main ridge, there are also some wall paintings. Because of the corrosion of the rain and wind, most of them are damaged. However, we can still barely see that those are about some traditional stories or some painting of nature.