That puzzle me a lot. A guy from Hong Kong flown all the way to Georgetown Penang to see a temple? He must be nut! There are plenty of Chinese Temple in Hong Kong and thousands in mainland China. What is so special with Chinese Temples in Georgetown?
My friend explained that neither Hong Kong nor China that he can see the well preserved and maintain old Chinese Temples. China has developed so fast and people demolish the temples to build sky scrapper. Hong Kong's Wong Tai Sin temple is nothing special, it is just a "commerical' temple for tourist only. The Chinese Temple in Geogretown is different. It is well preserved and maintain. He described to me that he could feel the atmosphere and environment and that brought his memory back to the 1940s or 50s! Wow, that good?
I never realized that we preserve our temples so well after my friend explanation. Having said that I must clarify that not all our buildings are well preserved, there are some crazy politicians want to demolished it and make way for development.
Another crazy thing that happened a few weeks ago was the town council want to bring down the hundred-year-old rain trees in my home town Taiping just to build some handicraft and souvenir stalls! The plan was eventually scrapped because to much of protest from the people.
Sorry, got carried away back to temple! A month later, I pull a night in Melaka on my way back from Johor Bahru. The next day, I got the chance to visit an ancient Chinese Temple - Cheng Yoon or QingYun. It was then I started to appreciate more the achitecture of Chinese Temples (Not all of course).
This Chinese Temple is more than 300 years ago (I don't know the exact years. Just google and search). It is the oldest temple in Malaysia and was built by the Kapitan (Chinese leader) back in the Portugese occupation of Melaka time.
The temple has gone through 6 times renovation and 3 times expansion. The recent renovation was done not that long ago and about a mix of 20 carpenters, painters and skilled "sifu" were brought in from China to do the renovation and preserve as much as possible the original look. Materials were all import from China and the total cost was more than 1 million ringgit Malaysia.
Looking at the architecture of the temple, I start to appreciate more of our heritage. Everything in the temple is carefully crafted and painted. The roof, door, window, frame, beams, table and many more are so unique and each has a story to tell! (I don't the story but I am sure there is one).
You can spend few hours to look at every part of the temple and feel fascinated. This temple is worth to see when you drop by Melaka. The rest are just complimentary. Cheng Yoon temple is along Temple Street (Jalan Tokong) just next to Jonker street in the Melaka Town.
The main entrance to the temple hall
Burning is done outside
The main hall of the temple
The woodcraft
Even at the roof you can see ancient figures
At the roof gutter
The side entrance and the window are special
Out of word to describe this.
The dragon at the door
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