Or rather, temple visits gallery. It’s the second day of the 2007 Lunar New Year today. Fortunately, it is not raining. I mean what is CNY when the sky’s cloudy? We had a reunion dinner on CNY eve. Leading the 9-course meal was none other than the obligatory dish - the yee sang.

Yee Sang

And because business at the restaurant coffee shop was so good, they actually ran out of fish. Therefore they replaced it with some other ingredient in the yee sang. I forgot what, but I thought that was weird. There was nothing we could do, and we were all seated with our stomachs growling already anyway.

That night (early morning of the 1st day of CNY), we performed what they call the ‘invitation of the God of Prosperity’. Sorry, I know direct-translations suck. For those of you who know, it’s 接财神 (’jie cai shen‘). By that time, the altars (including Guan Yin’s as well as our ancestors’) were filled with offerings such as foods, flowers, fruits and drinks.

Table used to Jie Cai Shen

It didn’t help that the house was filled with smoke. The burning of joss sticks (we had a number of big ones too) and candles could really make you tear. The TV was switched on - we watched some concert show recorded last year. On the 1st and 2nd day of CNY we weren’t allowed to wash our hair. But I did. At least I avoided the shampoo. Haha.

Then we went to a temple which I have always visited since I was young. My hometown? Well my grandparents are in the Klang Valley so there was no need to participate in the holiday exodus. This temple, however, required a little bit of traveling. (mouse-over thumbnails for larger images. Their corresponding captions below)


The scenic balcony.
We’re high up in the sky!
Spiral jossticks and blue skies.
Limes and ang pows.
Beautiful background - clouds.


Wall art.
Spiral jossticks at the balcony.
Man-made waterfall.
Temple building.
Colorful dragons on the wall.

The temple had undergone renovations to accommodate more visitors. It was not a very grand temple with elaborate decos like the Dong Zen Temple for instance, but it has improved tremendously. Like previous years, we would eat at the vegetarian restaurant in the temple after performing prayers.

And speaking of the FGS Dong Zen Temple, we actually made a trip there as well. Mom had been talking about it since she saw the adverts in the papers. I had no idea it would be so far. I mean I knew it was somewhere near Banting but it was further than I’d expected. The roads leading there were dark, narrow and bumpy. I took about 40 minutes to reach the temple! Gee. Night-photography was abit tricky there. My poor ol’ Lumix Fx-01 doesn’t seem to shine at night. But I suspect that the photographer needed more practice.


Entrance into FGS Dong Zen Temple.
Lanterns galore!
Beautiful lights.
Putting a josstick there was a delicate task.
Brightly-lit pagoda.


Statues in the garden.
These lanters were made by children!
One of the cute statues in the ‘Lumbini Garden’.
Bamboo and lights.
Goddess of Mercy, Kuan Yin.

We have been having visitors since morning. One of the most dreaded types of visitors has got to be small children. They played with glue, markers, papers and scissors in our family hall. Ah, and the mandarin oranges, cookies and kuih kapit (!!). Children should only eat them under full supervision! But that does not always happen. I will have to help clean the entire house soon - really soon. The carpets, floor mats, stairs, floors, pillows, couch… *faints*. That said, I must admit that this is considered ‘mild’. We used to receive little monster visitors - Once, my trusty remote-controlled car was destroyed by them, and the piano became real dirty and oily. Well, that aside, some of these children are really adorable you just can’t bring yourself to hate them.

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