Finding Religions—Plenty of Them—in Kuala Lumpur
continued
Hindu Temple in Kuala Lumpur.
On the bus back to Kuala Lumpur I sat next to a Tamil lady who was returning from a trip to meet her brother. She said she was stopping by a famous Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur to pray. I told her I was planning to go there, and she offered to show me the way. The temple is yet another assault upon the senses. There is a huge wooden gate leading into the temple. Above that is a five-tiered pyramid at least 25 feet high covered, from top to bottom, with dozens and probably hundreds of Hindu statues. Inside the building is a marble floor. There was a main building and three other open buildings containing shrines. Inside the main building there was one large wooden temple with a cover over the entrance. There were two others on each side of the large one, both containing statues. She went up to each one with her palms pressed together and seemed to be silently praying. At the same time, another lady took a small butter lamp and lit it with an eternal flame in the center of the temple. She held up the lamp to one of the shrines and also seemed to be praying. In one of the shrines outside the main building, a man was walking around one of the shrines chanting a mantra in Sanskrit, the holy language of Hinduism. The lady I was with later did the same without chanting.
Inside the Hindu Temple.
Just as we were about to leave, someone started ringing a loud bell. A few seconds later drums were playing and a horn-like instrument was being played. The lady said she had to go, but I decided to stay and watch. As the music was playing, three priests came forward with a tray containing five butter lamps. The head priest walked to each of the shrines and waved the lamps in front of them while the two younger priests fanned incense towards them. Finally, when he reached the big shrine in the main building the two young priests lowered the curtain and, along with the head priest, went inside. The music stopped and as it did, I faintly heard the last strains of a Muslim call to prayer in the distance. Such is Kuala Lumpur. The priest waved the butter lamps in front of the shrine and chanted for several minutes. After that he came out and waved the lamp in front of all the people who had gathered for the ceremony. He then held it in front of them and they held their palms over it, then pressed their hands to their faces. This is a ritual purification known as "Puja."
Every low budget traveler seems to fall into a certain trap in relatively cheap countries like Malaysia. After you've had plenty of US $1 meals and US $3 rooms, you start to think that things that are a little less cheap are a rip-off. Just that afternoon I'd had a Malay lunch of fish curry and veggies stewed in coconut milk over rice with iced coffee for 3 ringgit, about 75 cents US. Mistaking a good deal for a rip-off in this environment happens to everyone, and it happened to me that night. I heard about a cultural performance at the Siri Malaynu restaurant, so I called to ask about it. They told me that an all-you-can-eat buffet style meal and the performance would be 63 ringgit. My first thought was "Well, forget that! Sixty-three ringgit for dinner? Ha." Thankfully I did the math and realized that was about US $15 and would include the sort of thing I came here for in the first place. So I went. The restaurant was truly an expression of Malay culture. Housed in a lovely Malay house, the buffet had an enormous array of Malay dishes, most of which were wonderful. On the face of it, Malay food appears to be much like Indian or Thai food. Once you try it though, you realize that the spices are different and it really doesn't taste at all like Indian or Thai food. To drink I had some sort of melon juice, made from honeydew and kiwi, and I could detect a few herbs. It was very light and one of the most refreshing drinks I've ever had. The performances consisted of various styles of Malay music and dances. For good measure they threw in a Chinese and an Indian dance. The Malay dancers wore bright songet (gold thread) sarongs and preformed wedding dances, dances for religious holidays, and folk dances. Both men and women dance, but, Malay people being almost 100% Muslim, men and women never touch in the dances.
Malay dance.
I was lucky to be in Malaysia on a full moon night. On full moon nights Malays sometimes tie their colorful kites to an object and leave them to flutter over their homes. The paper or plastic they are made with is very thin, so the moonlight illuminates the kite, which is a very pretty sight. In fact, they call that style of kite "Moon Kite." Malay people are children at heart it seems. In their adult years their favorite pastimes are top-spinning and kite flying. Their kites are often huge, sometimes eight feet tall and lavishly decorated. Malay kites are an art form in themselves.
Malaysia is a country filled with all the colors of the rainbow. From the people's clothes to the temples, from the kites they dearly love to the fish in the sea, Malaysia is a land of color. The religions of Malaysia, with their art, paintings, and temples or mosques are a major part of this. During my time in Kuala Lumpur I passed many riotously colorful Chinese temples, but I didn't get time to visit one. At least not until I reached Singapore. That, however, is another story. So too is the story of where I went after Kuala Lumpur. After taking in the sights, smells, and sounds of the exotic capitol city, I went to the train palace… er, station, and headed to Johor Bahru and an adventure on the island of Borneo, which I'll describe next time.
Robert Wilson is an English teacher in northern Thailand. Pictures of his travels can be seen at photos.yahoo.com/robert_92122.
Other stories in this series:
Luang Phabang: The Lao Fairy-tale City
From Monkey to Monk
Along Cambodia's Backroads
Listening to the Rice Grow: A Journey Up the Nam Ou River in Laos (Part 1 and
Part 2)
Don't miss future articles from Robert in our continuing series, Window on Southeast Asia.
