My Very First Blog

Having blogged about ancient temple ruins in Cambodia for the past few weeks, I guess it's time to take a short break before you, my readers suffer from temple fatigue.

Unfortunately, I was not able to run away from the subject of temples. I found myself looking at the photos of temples again in my laptop albeit a different kind of temple. This time, it is the famous Chinese temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - the Thean Hou Temple (天后宫)



I have been to this temple only once when I was small so I could hardly remember how it looked like. I had this impression that it was quite grand! My chance to visit it again came last year when my brother went there for his registration of marriage (ROM).



Located atop Robson Heights along Lorong Bellamy overlooking Jalan Syed Putra, Thean Hou Temple was built in 1981, completed in 1987 and officially opened in 1989.

It is a 6-tiered temple built by the Hainanese community in Kuala Lumpur at the cost of RM7 million and is dedicated to the Goddess Tian Hou (The Heavenly Mother).

At the entrance to the temple, you can see this beautiful gazebo in Chinese-style architecture.



Near the gazebo is the statue of Goddess Guan Yin with a mini waterfall next to her.



There is also a garden with all the twelve Chinese animal zodiac, but I did not take photos of all of them except for the Dragon ...



The Rat ....



And the Tiger. This tiger sure looks fierce!



Can you see the Horse and the Sheep in the background?

Thean Hou Temple offers fortune telling and also marriage registration services as can be seen from this signboard.



I took photos of my brother and his wife and our families but I am afraid I won't be sharing them here. This post is more about Thean Hou Temple than about my brother's registration of marriage!

Look! There's even an ancient bride's carriage outside the ROM office!



After my brother had registered his marriage, we went for a short tour of the temple. The ROM office is located at the ground floor but to reach the temple, we had to climb up a few flight of stairs.

What greeted us were lanterns, lanterns and more lanterns!



I just snapped away with my camera!



Big red lanterns and smaller yellow ones were hung all over the temple compound. I am pretty sure it would be a sight to behold if all these lanterns are lighted up at night!



There were a few tourists there that day but most of the people were locals and they were there to do their prayers. Luckily it was not crowded as I simply dislike crowds!



I love the beautiful artistic roof of the temple which was decorated with statues of dragons and phoenixes and probably other celestial creatures!



I also like the pagoda-like tower, which was also decorated with lanterns!



See the key hole shaped door? Love that!



It was not as grand as I expected - oh well, probably it looked grand to me when I was a child. The Kek Lok Si Temple in Penang is definitely grander.



This is the incense or joss sticks burner in front of the temple. Sort or reminded me of those joss sticks burners I saw in the Jian Shan Temple in Yangshuo, China.



We stepped into the temple but we were not there to pray.



I am not sure if it's all right to take photos of people inside the temple especially if they are posing in front of the deities, but I just had to take the photo of this man taking a photo!



The prayer hall houses 3 altars - each for one deity or goddess. I am not sure if I got this right (please correct me if I am wrong, thank you!) but I think the altar on the left is dedicated to Shui Wei Sheng Niang (The Goddess of the Waterfront)



The altar in the middle belongs to Goddess Tian Hou (The Heavenly Mother)



And the altar on the right is dedicated to Guan Yin (The Goddess of Mercy)



The wall surrounding the temple is also decorated with tiles of these deities.



Frankly, I was quite impressed with the artistic carvings on the ceilings. Beautiful!



If you have not visited the Thean Hou Temple before, do give it a visit! Even though it is not as grand as the Kek Lok Si Temple in Penang, the ornate carvings and intricate embellishments make this temple a worthwhile visit!

I dislike attending funerals, especially Chinese funerals.

I don't know why, but the atmosphere at funerals give me the creeps. And the music played sounded especially horrible to my ears.

I remember the time my grandfather died when I was very little. I was not very close to my grandfather. He stayed in my uncle's house and I seldom visit him. When he died, my family had to attend the funeral at my uncle's house.

That night when I entered my uncle's house, I saw a huge coffin in the hall. As I was very small, I did not know any taboos related to Chinese funerals. The coffin was higher than me so I was eager to climb up to have a look.

When my mom saw what I was trying to do, she quickly pulled me aside. I don't remember what she said at that time, but it had somehow instilled a fear in me. That I was not supposed to touch coffins or dead people!

Then I saw my aunt putting something into the coffin. When she had done that, she started to cry. I asked aloud to my mom why was auntie crying? Was her fingers stuck in the coffin and she hurt herself when she tried to pull them out? Everyone laughed at that point. Even my aunt. I was slightly embarrassed.

That was my first experience of a funeral. Much of the details I could no longer remember.

But a few days later, I remember seeing this ceremony at my uncle's house. It was related to my grandfather's funeral. A man dressed in old traditional Chinese costume was jumping over a fire. I do not know what ceremony was that to this very day. Anyone knows?

The man would jump over the fire, but before he jumped, he would fill his mouth with wine. As he jumped over the fire, he would spit out the wine onto the fire causing it to flare up high. It was a spectacle to watch!

I even imitated his actions when I got back home, minus the fire and the wine, of course! I just used a toy pail to represent the fire and jumped over it! Haha!

Many years later, my grandmother died. At her funeral, there were talks about keeping the cats all caged up. Especially black cats. It seemed that there were many stray cats at her house. When I learnt why they had to cage up those cats, my hair stood on end.

It seemed that if a black cat were to accidentally jump over the corpse, the corpse would spring right up! This story had haunted me for days and gave me sleepless nights!

I also learnt that it was taboo to see the coffin being nailed shut. I was so curious I almost wanted to see how they nailed the coffin. But I did not. Fear kept me from doing so and I kept my head bowed and my eyes closed during the entire process.

When we returned home from the funeral, my mom would make sure that I and my siblings washed our feet outside before entering our house. My mom said that was to prevent bad luck from following us home. Of course, I heard a more fearful reason later on. It was not just bad luck. It was to prevent evil spirits at the funeral from following you home!

I still wonder to this very day if these are all nothing but just superstitions.

Will a cat jumping over a dead corpse causes the corpse to wake up?
What will happen if you watch the coffin being nailed?
And what will happen to you if you forget to wash your feet and enter your house after attending a funeral?

Yippee! Today is a public holiday!

No Monday blues for me! Isn't it nice to have Monday as a holiday?

Sorry to those of you who are not staying or working in Selangor. I guess it's just another normal working Monday for you. Well, look at the bright side. Hari Raya holidays are coming in 2 weeks time!

I still remember when I was small, I used to dislike going to school. I always looked forward to the weekends. Friday nights had got to be the most enjoyable nights for me those days. I could look forward to Saturdays and Sundays with joy!

I would dread Sunday nights. In fact, I would start feeling down by Sunday afternoon. That's how bad it was. By the time I got ready for bedtime on Sunday night, I would wish that I would be in dreamland forever and the next day would never ever come!

And the whole process would repeat itself week after week, like a horrible cycle that would only be interrupted by the school term holidays and the occasional public holidays!

Of all the holidays that I experienced during my childhood days, the year-end school holidays must be the best of them all! The 7-week (sometimes 8) holidays were weeks filled with fun, fun and more fun! There was practically nothing to worry about. No studies, no school projects, no waking up early. Gosh, those were the days....


Image courtesy of Diocese Of Oxford

Sometimes I could not help but feel a little upset when I see children nowadays. Especially Chinese schools' students. They do not seem to have any holidays! Even during school break, they need to study and attend extra classes in school. Most of them even need to go for tuition classes.

I mean, where is their childhood? I really think children deserve to enjoy their childhood because once they grow up, they will never be able to experience the joys of being children! No wonder Michael Jackson blamed everything that happened to him to his missing childhood!


Image courtesy of UN Good Works

I really hope children nowadays won't grow up and start acting weird and then when we question them on their behaviour, they will ask "Have you seen my childhood?"

Do you like to read? I assume you do otherwise you won't be reading my blog, right? But then, maybe you just like to look at pictures. Haha!

I have a friend who said that she seldom read books because she will go to sleep after a few paragraphs. So her pastimes are spent watching DVDs on her computer. How sad!

I think people who don't read are missing a big part of life! There are so many things you can learn from books and blogs!

I love to read. Unfortunately, I just cannot find the time to read as much as I wanted to. I still remember when I was a small kid, I had all the time to read! Oh, those were the days!

During my early primary school days, I read mainly Enid Blyton's books. They were my source of joy and entertainment! Although I could not remember most of the stories, names like Big Noddy, Mr Pink Whistle, Mr Twiddle and Mister Meddle do strike a chord in me.

Enid Blyton was such a wonderful story teller! I had so much fun reading her books and all those wonderfully weird characters she created. Besides writing funny and interesting stories, she was also good at mysteries. Who could ever forget her popular Adventurous Four, or The Famous Five or even The Secret Seven?


Image courtesy of worldpeacepoll.com

The Famous Five was a big hit with me. Do you remember that tomboy George who was really Georgina and she had this adorable dog by the name of Timmy? And then of course there were Julian, Dick and Anne that make up the rest of the team!

It was The Secret Seven books that introduced me to the word "password". The Secret Seven were really a group of 7 children who loved to hold secret meetings at secret places. All the members must say the password in order for them to be allowed in for their meetings.

Guess what? I was so fond of the Secret Seven when I was small I actually played what I now call "The Secret Seven Game" with my siblings. Yes, we had secret meetings under the staircase of my house. That's right, under the staircase! haha! Well, that time, we were all tiny enough to gather together in such a small space. I vividly remember my sister actually calling out the wrong password and I did not want to let her in! It was just so fun at that time!

When I was a little older, I lost interest in Enid Blyton's books and got myself immersed in Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators. That was my first introduction to famous movie director Alfred Hitchcock, although I never ever knew who the author of the books is to this day! Well, I just checked Wikipedia and found that this detective series was created by a person named Robert Arthur Jr.


Image courtesy of threeinvestigatorsbooks.com

Do you still remember the names of the Three Investigators? They were Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews. Jupiter is the smart one who always lead the way in solving all the mysteries. Pete is the athletic one, while Bob is studious and wear glasses.

The Three Investigators even inspired me to come up my own riddles! I still remember a game I had when I was small. I would hide an object somewhere in the house, and then wrote a riddle for my siblings to solve in order to locate that object! What fun I had!

Thinking back of my childhood days just brings back a flood of memories. The good and the bad, the funny and the embarrassing ones. Perhaps I would share more of my childhood days with you readers in my future posts.