We decided to take a taxi to a street that was a bit outside the main city, that had three temples all next to each other, and different enough that it was worthwhile to visit all three. They all were built against tall hills and featured cave temples as well.
The first temple was the Ling Sen Tong Buddhist Temple. There were many newly painted statues and it had a bit of a kids theme park vibe. The brightness of the statues and temples really stood out on this sunny day.
The cave deities were quite interesting; some Taoist deities (Lao Tzu with his Ox) and some local ones (more on those later in the post). There was a lot of different religious deity overlap at these temples.
There was a big statue of the Guanyin Bodhisattva (or Lady Buddha) and a smaller one, and a friendly Luck Buddha that Jessica is patting on the tummy (for good luck, of course).
The huge reclining Buddha and other deity with a pagoda in his hand were on the second level of the temple.
There was a Drum of Maitreya, that for a donation could be struck, and Jessica did so three times, which you can see yields good results.
From here we could see Nam Thean Tong Taoist Temple, as it is right next door.
We left Ling Sen Tong and walked the very short trip to the Nam Thean Tong entrance gate.
As you can see, much of this temple is built into the hillside. We went inside to explore the cave temples, and there are all kinds of interesting temples, altars, murals painted on the cave walls, and lots of staircases leading up.
Even though there wasn’t much airflow and we were quite sweaty, we had fun exploring and taking the stairs to different parts of the cave temple. After we ran out of stairs, we went back outside and rested in the shade, then checked out the huge Lao Tzu and Ox statue in the center of the courtyard.
There were some characters in the courtyard that we could put our faces through, so of course we had to do that.
Behind them was a small rainbow bridge which we had seen from the other temple. To the left of Jessica below, in the yellow building, there was a sign that read, “keep door closed to stop monkeys from entering.” We hadn’t seen any monkeys so far, just some old dogs, but kept a keen eye out. Inside the small room there was a shrine to the Lady Buddha.
We left the way we came, and departed the Nam Thean Tong complex, thoroughly impressed with the first two temples.
It was a few minute walk to the final temple, the Chinese Buddhist Sam Poh Tong Temple. There was a different feel immediately than the prior two, as stone and nature came to the forefront at this complex. In the courtyard we first saw the pond and rock formations, with mini temples and scenes found inside.
The only bright color was from the pink bougainvillea in bloom.
This was just the courtyard and large monastery building. The actual temple was under the huge gate below, and through a cave.
We passed a couple shrines built into the cave and the four guardian kings.
We glimpsed the opening to the cave and knew we were in for something cool.
On the right side they actually had some turtles, but not near as big as the ones that we saw in Penang. On the left was the temple, which was really impressive.
We were amazed at how this temple came to be, and learned it was built in the 1950s. Though well after the first monk found the cave and made it his home in the 1890s. We couldn’t enter the temple itself, but it didn’t matter. Just being in this space, inside a limestone mountain, open to the sky, was pretty amazing. We sat and watched monkeys chase each other in the foliage against the mountain, and enjoyed the quiet serenity.
There were some carved stone Buddhas, but the temple was absolutely the star.
It was nearing closing time, so we couldn’t stay too long, but it was a really enjoyable temple visit day. On the same road not too far was a Buddhist monastery, but it was closed. Just beyond was a Bonsai farm, which we had to check out, as it began to drizzle. Many of the trees were very large and all looked similar actually, so I was a little disappointed. However we did get to see a little shrine close up.
We had noticed these little shrines all over Ipoh, and sometimes saw a little bearded man, and other times even a rock. They were odd, and we did some research, and learned they were to honor the Na Tuk Kong (or Datuk Gong). Brought from China and combined with Malay Muslim beliefs of honoring ancestors (Datuk is grandfather in Malay), there is also a connection with paying respect to guardian spirits, who can take forms of nature, such as rocks, ant hills, huge trees, and others. Food and drinks are usually given as offerings. Here are some other small shrines we saw around Ipoh.
As we had learned in Penang, the blending of Indian, Chinese, and Malay cultures yielded some very interesting religious combinations and overlap of the major religions. It is a testament to the tolerance of all Malaysians that all these religions exist in peace, within a Muslim nation. With that being said, we made another Temple visit while in Ipoh, which we walked to from the apartment we rented.
The Tow Boh Keong Temple was possibly the oddest one yet. A Taoist Temple, it dated back to the 1890s. It looked like many of the other temples we had seen, but there were a lot of men dressed in either all white or all yellow, shirts and slacks. They were getting ready for a big celebration. Two different, friendly, guys talked to us and told us about the temple, and how it was dedicated to the Nine Emperors Gods. The men told us we could not see the main altar, which was behind the deities below, but were welcome to take as many pictures inside the temple, where the other deities were behind glass.
The said they were preparing for Nine Emperor Gods Festival, though we were a couple weeks too early and would miss it. We left and walked back to the rental apartment, a bit overwhelmed by all the different and beautiful temples we had experienced, yet feeling happy and lucky to learn and visit them.
