George Town's Buddhist Temples

I've never visited so many Buddhist temples within an afternoon in the city before. What happened was that we had arranged for this little book on the Dhamma to be printed and had been in Penang to collect the first 600 copies.

Last month, I had written about the passing of Audrey Lim Suyin, a young lady we knew for a long time, in a tragic road accident along the North-South Expressway somewhere in Johor. Her aggrieved parents had readily agreed to share the book with us and this is the result: a 48-page book.

So off we went today, after meeting the publisher, to distribute the 600 copies. Originally we had wanted to drop off all the books at the Mahindarama Buddhist Temple in Kampar Road for free distribution to devotees but then, I decided that along the way, my wife and son could do with some knowledge of some of the other Buddhist temples in the city.


So our first stop was the Penang Buddhist Association, a vast Buddhist temple in Anson Road, unlike any that you'll ever see in Penang. The imposing statues in the main hall are all of Italian marble. Then, we went to this little, relatively unknown and easily overlooked Buddhist temple in Perak Road, with a very modest main hall. If I'm not mistaken, this is the Lean See Buddhist Temple. It's right next door to the Buppharam Buddhist Temple which usually overshadows it. The Buppharam temple holds two life-sized images of the Luang Phor Thuad, a venerated old Thai monk who lived some 400 years ago. Our last stop was the Mahindarama Buddhist Temple itself. We would have done more Buddhist temples in the city but time really did not permit us.

Anyway, a week ago we were attending a Dhamma talk at the home of Audrey's parents. It was the first time that we were listening to a Tibetan monk. Khenpo Kunga had come all the way from Hongkong to offer prayers to Audrey. That's her mother on the right. I asked him a very unmonk-like question. Why did he join the monkhood. I guess he was unprepared because he burst out laughing next. We had caught him off-guard. One moment he was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, the next moment he had swung his feet down and sat just like any ordinary person would. I could see that he was trying to recollect some fond memories.

As a very young boy, he said, he pestered his father to let him join the monkhood because his friends around him wanted to do so. For a long while his father refused but at long last he relented. So they took a long bus journey to a remote temple in Nepal where his head was shaved and he was put into robes. After the initiation ceremony, his father left. And it was that time that he suddenly realised what was happening. As a small boy, he had assumed that his father would remain and stay with him. He never expected that his father would leave. But he survived the ordeal. Not only was he the only one among his group of friends who remained ordained, in the last 30 years or so he has even obtained a doctorate in Buddhism.