The Sea-screen Temple at Honam, Canton

Auguste Borget travelled to Canton, Hong Kong and Macao from 1838 to 1839, making textual and pictorial records along the way. The drawings of his voyage were published in the form of lithographs, together with his writings, in Sketches of China and the Chinese in 1842, after he had returned to France. This lithograph is one of the illustrations from the book. It depicts the Sea Screen Temple, a famous and splendid temple located on the island of Honam in Canton. In this lithograph, you may like to pay special attention to the pigs in the foreground, which were an eye-catching item for foreign travellers back then. In his book, Bits of Old China, William Hunter noted that the pigs were "kept and fed in illustration of the Buddhist tenet, not to destroy but to care for animal life". The artist also mentioned these pigs in his book. Other than the animals, Borget loved the atmosphere of the temple very much. He wrote "I have visited the great temple several times, the noise outside the temple was so great and the silence inside the temple was so solemn, that I believed myself transported to another world. I imagine that if I were shut inside the temple I would be completely cut off from the outside world."