World cruise 29M2

From Margaret
Penang, Malaysia
A Day in Penang

Well, it was called "A Day in Penang," but it might just as well have been called a day in the temples. We visited at least three of them, maybe more as it is hard to tell where one ends and the next one begins. All of them were Buddhist temples. The Thai Temple contains the fourth largest reclining Buddha in the world – a seriously large statue being 108 feet long.

Around the walls of this temple were small niches containing porcelain jars. A Buddhist can purchase one of these and entomb the ashes of family members. Under this wall of urns are Buddhas for each of the Chinese zodiac signs. More interesting were the dragons and guardian spirit statuary just outside the entrance.

The Burmese temple across the street had a bit of an international flavor in that behind the very large statue of Buddha were a row of smaller Buddha statues reflecting the interpretation of Buddha by each of the cultures which worship Buddha. Unfortunately, I did not have time to get into that area and look at each of these statues. It would have been interesting. I did "buy" a couple of small books, in English, on Buddhism.

On our way to the third temple, we drove past a Muslim cemetery that was acres and acres and acres in size, as well as being very old. If there were any recent graves, I did not see them.

The third temple was a seriously large one on top of a hill and a good way out of Penang. There was a lot of construction, or more likely repair work, being done on this temple. It has seven levels which the worshiper has to negotiate – seemed much more like a very confusing maze to me. I think that this was the Kek Lok Si Temple and is the largest Chinese Buddhist temple in South-East Asia.

Our guide earned his keep trying to keep us all in one group among the crowds and confusing twists and turns. Parts of it were quite beautiful and parts made no sense – like the pond of water turtles. There were a huge number of them and as the crowds passed by they would all stick their heads out of the water presumably begging for bits of food. I never did find out what the story was.

We walked up to the 6th level. The 7th level could only be reached by car, and I think our guide said that was where the monks were cloistered. So, those of us who couldn't walk up the multitude of steps got a ride to the top, but I am not sure that they got to go inside.

Lunch was a delicious buffet of more or less Malaysian food in a very high end resort. We followed lunch with a drive around the coastline of Penang and then to a butterfly farm. It is fun to have butterflies flitting all around and even lighting on you.

Our last stop was a small local spice stall for a discussion of local spices. Couldn't resist buying a bottle of nutmeg oil – which they claim has all kinds of uses other than cooking. Certainly the fragrance lingers for a long time on one's skin.
Fun day, but I think I am quite "templed" out – and we still have India to go!!!