【Penang Temple】Chinese Temples @ Bukit Mertajam & Butterworth

Hai Dang Ma Temple

Click for Chinese Version

Normally, when travelling at Bukit Mertajam, one will be go hunting the famous foods in Bukit Mertajam. However, for our trip, our schedule is fully pack with the Chinese temples in Bukit Mertajam. Our temple hunt starts the next day after the cremation ceremony of the God of Hades at Bukit Mertajam. Our first temple is this 'Ma Zu Temple'.

Hai Dang Ma Temple (Ma Zu Temple)

This is the main door arch of the Ma Zu Temple.

This is another door arch within the place. This door arch is written 'Tian Hou Hua Yuan' which means garden. Inside this garden there are the statue of the 12 Chinese Zodiac, the statue of the four main characters of the 'Journey to the West' and the statue of the Ma Zu.

This is the statues of the characters of the 'Journey to the West'.

This is the statue of Ma Zu.

In front of the garden is the house of the Eight Immortals. There are eight statues of the Immortals surrounding a rock.

This is the temple's stage. It is said that long ago there are stage in most of the temple. The main function of the stage is to perform the opera show during the Deities' birth or some grand festivals.

This is the main door of the Ma Zu Temple.

This the "Ti Gong" urn in front of the temple. Below the urn is the drawing of the three gods of fortune, prosperity and longevity.

The hall inside the temple.

This is the door arch which can pass through to the left side of the temple. Above the door arch are two dancing phoenixes.

And this is the door arch which is connected to the right side of the temple. Above the door arch are two green dragons.

After half an hour spending inside the Ma Zu Temple, we went to the next temple. This time we have come to the Hock Teik Tua Peik Kong Temple of Taman Alma at Bukit Mertajam.

Hock Teik Tua Peik Kong Temple

This is the Hock Teik Tua Peik Kong Temple.

There is a big "Ti Gong" urn in front of the temple with 'Tian Di Fu Mu' written on it. It means that the earth and heaven are the parents to us.

There are some pictures telling different stories being carved on the wall of the temple.

This is the interior of the temple.

 

We spent little time at this Hock Teik Tua Peik Kong and pretty soon we have moved to the next destination. The next temple is Zhen Fu Tang San Wang Fu Dou Mu Gong which is also located at Bukit Mertajam.

Zhen Fu Tang San Wang Fu Dou Mu Gong

San Wang Fu Dou Mu Gong from the top view.

San Wang Fu Dou Mu Gong from the bottom view.

The main door of San Wang Fu.

Two deities of the Four Heavenly Kings : The Zeng Zhang Tian Wang of the South and the Chi Guo Tian Wang of the East.

Two deities of the Four Heavenly Kings : The Duo Wen Tian Wang of the North and the Guang Mu Tian Wang of the West.

Soon, it is time to go to the next temple again. This time, we have went out of Bukit Mertajam and went to the Dou Mu Gong at Butterworth.

Tow Boo Kong Butterworth

This is the door arch of the Tow Boo Kong, it is so magnificent!

This is the Butterworth Tow Boo Kong.

This is the main door of the Dou Mu Gong. Within the main door is the chamber of the Nine Emperors.

The chamber of the Nine Emperors.

Behind the urns there are nine God's statues. I guess that is most likely the the statue of the Nine Emperors. 

Behind the Nine Emperors chamber there is a drawing of a hundred kids.

There is another chamber at the back of Dou Mu Gong. Have you notice that the chambers have three doors? Well, the middle door is for the deities to pass through, while we should be using the side door to enter the chamber.

This is the chamber at the back of Dou Mu Gong.

This is the statue of Na Zha San Tai Zi and in front of it is the five army heads.

Sun is going to set down soon and the next stop will be our last station. This temple is just beside the Bei Hai Dou Mu Gong, we just have to move a little bit left from Dou Wu Gong to reach the temple. Our last temple is the Bei Hai Leng Eng Seah.

Butterworth Leng Eng Seah

This is the Leng Eng Seah.

This temple has it's own stage.

The 'Ti Gong' urn in front of the temple.

The main door of the temple.

The caretakers are painting the wall of the temple when we reached there.

With this, our temple hunt has come to an end. There are still lots of temple on the list that we were unable to hunt down due to the time constraint. Yet, this is definitely a good experience and a very fresh trip for me!

This post was originally written on 30th August 2013