Malaysia 2022/23 - #21 - Wat? No There Is No Limit On Temple Visits!

Or old mansions either.

 On our last day of touring in Penang there were three top sites we had yet to check off our list. 

• The Blue Mansion - A former home of a mega Chinese Malay Tycoon 
• Wat Chayamangkalaram - A Buddhist Temple done in the Thai style 
• Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple - A rare example of the Burmese style of Buddhist Temple outside of Myanmar. 

The Blue Mansion  - The short story

Rags to Riches Chinese immigrant, Cheon Fatt Tze built a fabulous business empire. You can read his full story here. He is a remarkable person. He is called the Rockefeller of China. This is one of his many houses throughout SE Asia and Southern China. He built it for a beloved fourth wife. His will stipulated that the family could not sell the property until the youngest son of this wife died. It had fallen in to near ruin by the time that happened. It was subsequently purchased by a couple of architects who spent 6 years restoring it to its former glory and turning it into a hotel. (BTW Celebrity Historian, this would be a great story to add to your repertoire!)

Entrance to the Property

The nature of the property lent itself to numerous interesting photo ops.

Inside during the tour, the ops were less frequent.

Before we left the grounds, one more photo op

Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple

I was surprised. I was skeptical that the temple would be that much different from the Chinese Buddhist styles we had been seeing. But it was decidedly different.

The expressions on people's faces was a major difference with a focus on loving devotion 

There is much more emphasis on human relationships

Even the Demons are devoted

Dragons and other mythological figures are portrayed with a softer approach. And the dress, rituals and postures are different.

Modern Buddhism - Monk with Cell phone

Wat Chayamangkalaram 

Let's see the difference with the Thai style

"You see love. Don't listen to #3. You can NEVER get enough Temples!"

Dragons have a very distinctive look. Their mirror clad sides offered a ton of photographic possibilities.

I have seen the light oh dragon!

Other images of difference

The Reclining Buddha, a very different representation.

And some Very Different representations of devotees

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

A Burger and Soft Drink WILL NOT get you on the road to enlightenment.

Malaysia 2022/23 - #19 - Kek Luk Si Mega Temple

We are in the middle of a run where we are trying to see every temple we possibly can before we leave Penang. We have the words of Daughter #3 exhorting us, encouraging us, driving us onward - "See every freaking temple you possibly can until you drop!" So we dedicate this temple marathon to her and her inspiring encouragement. 

(Wife just told me that I might have misinterpreted what #3 was saying. Perhaps, just perhaps, she was being sarcastic about our tendency to over do things? Nah, that couldn't be possible. Could it?)

Kek Luk Si is far and away the largest temple on Penang. It is Chinese and features a 220 foot tall statue of the Goddess of Mercy and a seven-tier pagoda. It's big. We can see it from our apartment which is some 5-6 miles away. It is built on the side of hill. It requires a major climb or going up via two funiculars and one electric cart ride between the funiculars. It took 20 years to build and was an expression of appreciation of their good fortune by the Malay Chinese community at the turn of the last century.

This Goddess of Mercy is BIG

I mean BIG

You know what I mean. Like NOT SMALL

Even her accompanying demons are BIG

And tough looking. Mercy may be kind but its attendants...

Even dragons come to the Goddess for Mercy

The Goddess' Elephants are tough looking too!

Don't mess with Mercy

I am not nearly as up to speed on my Chinese deities as I should be but there are one helluva a lot of statues of them and/or their devoted acolytes in a temple of this size.

 

 

 

 

Looking down back toward George Town

Around the Temple grounds

A Temple of this magnitude requires a lot of donations to keep it going.

So Please Give

Please?

We're serious. GIVE!

Photography

Shadows/Silhouette

Reflection

Candids

Leading Lines

Flower

On to Lunch

We have become totally comfortable going to whatever local Kopitiam we can find. These are usually fairly unassuming places run by Malay Chinese. There host location is the coffee shop itself.  It will be open air. You will sit down and place your drink order, paying for it when it arrives. All around the coffee shop area are small booths preparing and selling various foods, the majority based on rice or noodles

On the right hand corner is the no frills kopitiam

Today I am having duck meat noodle soup

We are wiped out and take our Grab back to the apartment catching one more shot of street art