As been for the last three years, I went to temples on Chinese New Year for the purpose of shooting pictures again. What else, I don’t understand the ritual to do it myself. The last two years, I visited the bigger temple in Petak Sembilan, yes, the one with hundreds of peoples coming to wait for charity.
Well, that’s not interesting anymore, especially because the place is reek of cameramen hunting for that “unusual” moments.
For that reason, rather than going to the old town, I tried visiting smaller temples in less old part of the city.
The first of the two temples I visited on Saturday are, the temple in Pasar Baru area. It’s located among residential area and the size is not that different from normal home in my opinion. Of course, the high ceiling and lack of walls in the main chamber made it feel a lot spacious than typical house.
The second temple is in Mangga Besar area, simply because our family will have dinner together there so I could just go straight from location to the restaurant :D
While this temple is located right in front of a big street, the interior is not that interesting. Why, it took my slow brain until next day to realize the point.
The older temples around the old town are not just bigger (price of land relative to era?), but also built differently.
Especially this one has walls covered in tile, which is comparatively modern.
On Sunday, it’s the old town’s temples. Well, I don’t expect much actually, just to meet with friends (probably).
The two main temples are as usual, crowded and filled with smoke that a pair of swimming goggles became a requirement to comfortably get pictures inside.
Now, for those peoples who are not interested in taking scene where dozens of other cameramen are roaming around, there’s at least four other temples within walking distance.
I visited three of them yesterday.
I don’t remember their name, but the first one enshrined a Chinese general who got promoted into divinehood as patron god of the elderly (or maybe filial piety). The temple is relatively big with pillars the temple caretaker proudly introduce as solid wood piece taken straight from China circa 400 years ago.
Contrary to that usual temple, this one had no visitor when we visit. Great to take architecture pictures. Next year, I think I’ll focus it here and the next one.
The next temple is also interesting. It’s “land locked”, inside densely populated area. The temple’s front courtyard itself is also surrounded by houses, so the it looks like a hidden place. The god here is Guan Yu, the famous general from Three Kingdoms era.
There’s some visitors here, which made it more interesting. No, no tourists here either.
