Last Tuesday was fun because I went to Butterworth for a little road trip and visits to holy places, the St. Anne’s Sanctuary and now the Raja Uda famous Tow Boo Kong or simply known as the Nine Emperor Gods Temple. If you are curious about my religion, I am not really sure what am I, I guess I am Taoist which believe in Buddhism too.
Paddy field. =D
From Bukit Mertajam to Raja Uda in Butterworth is not near! I always thought they are close to each other but not already after this trip. Google Maps was our guide and it sucks because it brought us into Kampung and using those little road instead of the high way.
Very kampung.
Which eventually made us a little bit scared because for 20-30 minutes along the road, we saw paddy field, old houses, Malay village and it’s very rural. Scared there we were lost and in the end decided to look for sign and turn into highway and forget about the maps. We agak-agak know it’s somewhere on Raja Uda Rd, so we didn’t bother the maps in the end and went there on our own.
After driving for like 45 minutes, turning in and out from the rural and unfamiliar roads, forgetting about the GPS, we have reach the Tow Boo Kong safely. So happy to see the gate and the temple. I am not a very superstitious person but I know a little bit of Nine Emporor God. I know there’s Nine Emperor God Festival which happens during September of Chinese calendar every year and it’s very happenings in Penang or place with Nine Emperor Gods Temple. It’s also season when devotees become vegetarian during the festival.
Penang is famous for this event at Carnavon Street and here at Raja Uda. It’s a little bit like Indian’s Thaipusam with poking on human flesh. Woo.
The temple was long and has a super pretty gate on the outside. The whole compound is huge but the temple is not super huge as I thought. It’s not like the St Anne or Kek Lok Si in Penang so big. But the place is nice.
They have good design, good engraving, modernish mixed with Chinese temple feel.
Although I am not a superstitious person, but since visited to the temple, might as well do some prayers for myself and family. =)
Guess what, it was late afternoon, sunset time and it was only us praying in the temple. =D It’s super quiet! One interesting about the temple is that when doing prayers, putting the joss stick, there’s actually numbering sequence for which pot and which god and goddess to pray first, so there’s like 1, 2, 3 so you wouldn’t be confuse which to start first and which to end. Damn cool for people like me who don’t really know the “protocol” of a temple. Hehe.
Tow Boo Kong rocks.
No Comments