Temples

Today I decided to visit Kek Lok Si temple, the biggest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. Unfortunately the rest of Penang seemed to have the same idea which lead to a very chaotic bus journey - or maybe they're all like that?

The base of the temple is ringed by hawkers markets & traders, so you have to fight you way up narrow steps flanked by stalls selling t-shirts, bags & nik-naks.
The sun beats through the flimsy fabric cover and you're frequently balked by people randomly stopping to admire the latest Man Utd bootleg shirts. If you pause to allow this you're immediately swamped by people from behind - instead you should shift to stand in the way of people coming down and stare & edge your way through in whatever way possible.

Once you get to the top you see a turtle pond, which makes you realise that you weren't that hemmed in after all

This actually doesn't give the right impression as to how many turtles were in there - it was ridiculous. Although the big daddy of the turtle world had been isolated to a separate pond, where he was the target for good luck coins
That's a regular slice of bread floating next to him if you need some scale.

The temple itself was beautiful, and would have been very peaceful if you ignored the hoards of site-seers & tourists

and it's position on the hill meant that there were some cool breezes despite the heat
The main body of the temple was some sumptuously decorated halls containing a variety of statues of Buddha in his various guises





I'm not up with Buddhist dogma but I think I understand the basics - spoilt Indian prince leaves his home for a journey of abstinence & poverty, which eventually leads to enlightenment and teachings that you need to move beyond your immediate circumstances & lose attachment to your earthly possessions to be truly happy. Very revolutionary at the time, probably even more so now and you could argue leading to a passivity where to be involved is to be attached. What I'm not so sure about is how this leads to lavishly decorated temples, huge gold plated statues and a variety of different 'looks' in the same temple. I can understand different sects interpreting in different ways - as ever man gets in the way of god, and even the saintly Tibetan Buddhists have been involved in pogroms against rival groups - but it seems odd to me to see them in the same complex. I picked up a free guide to Buddhism which may help, and I have a few friends who are no doubt shaking their heads at my crassness and will fill me in on what I'm missing.

Anyway, there was one more statue to see so we squeezed into an 'inclined lift' for a trip up the hill
The main statue used to stand exposed to the rain - and still does in any postcards or pictures that you see - but has been given a gazebo to shelter under, a godly 'manbrella' to keep the sun off
To be honest I have no idea if this is a representation of the Buddha or not, but it's very impressive all the same.

In typical Penang style, there was also a Hindu temple at the base of the hill....