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| Penang Snake Temple |
Snake Temple is one of
the famous tourism place in Penang. It was always crowded with people
during holiday and the deity's birthday. Shops can be seen around the
temple and they are all doing the tourists business. By the way, I have
been living in Penang for five years yet I have never visited Snake
Temple before, not until few days ago. Kinda feel ashamed of myself. =P
Snake Temple History (according to the notice board)
"More than a century ago, a monk from China has brought a deity statue of "Chor Soo Kong" to Penang. With the aid from the deity, the monk has cured many patients and has became well-known. In the year 1873, David Brown from the Gelugor farm expressed his gratitude for curing his illness by presenting a land to the monk. With the help from the public, a temple was then built on that land. Right after the temple was built, a number of mysterious snakes started to appear and make the temple their living place. It is said that the number of the snakes increased every time when there was a celebration, especially during the birthday of "Chor Soo Kong""
I asked the caretaker for the history of this Snake Temple and he has a different version story. He said that the temple was built because of the snakes that suddenly appeared at this place. He told me that not far from here used to be a jungle (now is a factory site) and the snakes from the jungle kept coming to this place. Then, the local found out that the snakes possessed heavenly power and so they built this Snake Temple to worship these snakes.
The main door of the temple is guarded by two stone lions. These two stone lions are of male and female, can you guess the gender of the above stone lion?
Well,
it is quite obvious that the first stone lion is the male one and the
second one is female. Try to look at their sex organ and you will notice
the different. Actually, the stone lions at the other temples are
mostly of different gender as well, try to have a closer look at them
next time.
There are three deity being worshiped in the temple with "Qing Shui Zu Shi" as the main deity and the other two deity are "Yan Luo Tian Zi" (left) and "Zhu Sheng Niang Niang" (right).
"Qing Shui Zu Shi" is a deity of medicine. During his lifetime, he treated the poor patients for free and because of his kind heart, he was loved by many. "Qing Shui Zu Shi" always tried the medicine on himself for the research purpose and he was always poisoned by the medicine which has eventually turned his face darker and darker. As a deity of medicine, he bless his disciples with good health. Each year, "Qing Shui Zu Shi" birthday will be celebrated three times by the Snake Temple, which are the 1st lunar month of the 6th day, 6th lunar month of the 6th day and 11th lunar month of the 6th day.
"Yan Luo Tian Zi" is the ruler of the 5th hell. The two standing beside "Yan Luo Tian Zi" are the familiar cow head and horse face.
As
for "Zhu Sheng Niang Niang", she is a deity that bless her disciples
with fine maternity and protect her disciple with a bless childbirth.
She plays the same role as the "Song Zi Guan Yin".
Besides the three deities, the temple also worshiped the 36 Heavenly Generals which are guarding the temple at both side with each side 18 of them.
Though
the statues are small, yet each and everyone of them is finely carved.
It must have took the carving master a very long time to come out with
this one set of 36 Heavenly Generals.
There is another deity at the right of the temple, "Fu De Zheng Shen" or more commonly known as "Dua Pek Kong"
Snake Temple has provided the service to take photo with the snake but I am not sure how is the payment.
There is a snake farm at the most right part of the Snake Temple. I did not entered the snake farm because it required entrance fee (I am poor!).
There was a big snake at the entrance place of the snake farm. Since the snake is not locked up, tourists can touch it with their hand.
Refer the above photo for the snake farm entrance fee and opening hours.
There is a snake breeding area behind the snake temple. You can see the snake here if you don't want to see it in the snake farm.
Beside the snake breeding area is a small pavilion. This pavilion is situated high up so you need to walk a few ladder steps to reach the pavilion.
The snake breeding area viewing from the pavilion.
The snakes I saw in the snake breeding area are all of this type.
Beside snake, I have saw a few lizards in the snake breeding area.
Passing through the snake breeding farm and I came to a hall that worshiped the Goddess of Mercy. This hall is still very new with a history of mere thirty plus years.
The main deity, Goddess of Mercy.
According to the caretaker, the sub deity at the left is "Ne Zha". However, according to my professional friend, he said this is "Long Nv".
The caretaker said the one at the right is "Hong Hai Er" but according to my professional friend again, this is "Shan Cai".
The opening hours of the Snake Farm is from 7 AM to 5 PM everyday.
This post was originally written on 10th August 2014
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