On Experiencing Ancient Air

Heh! How ancient do you think a place in Malaysia can be? Say... is 300 years old enough?

As before mentioned, we came across the oldest Chinese temple in Malaya located near the Jonker Street. The day that we were there, there were a lot of people. Devotees from all walks of life came to the temple and pray. But it could be said that most of them are actually tourists like us.

See, the thing about Chinese temple is, I don't know what should I really do. I am a Buddhist. But I'm not exactly any of the types who say prayers and mantras. I'm brought up in a way that, we go to temples, burn the josticks, kneel down before the statues of the Gods, and pray silently in our hearts, finally putting the josticks in a pot of ashtrays.

So while we were in the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple in Malacca, the acclaimed oldest temple in Malaya, I don't know if I should get the josticks and pray like how we did back at our hometown.
Both Melvin and Cedric are Christians you see. So it's not like they need to put their hands together and wish for health.

I mean... okay... that just didn't came out right. Anyways, it's about me, not them.

That was all I did anyway. I felt guilt haunting if I just walked into the temple and start taking photos without doing something like erm, praying for instance. But I didn't want to get a pack of josticks, burn them and kneel down before the Gods and pray. Because... I don't know...

So all I did was putting my hands together, and wished a prayer silently before the Gods.

Anyways, back to the temple. It was really beautiful. The carvings are very well reserved. And the ceiling inside the temple was magnificient. Such a grandeur.

Since it is the oldest Chinese temple in Malaya, there were some, erm, memorial plates at the back of the temple. As in, like what we always see in Chinese drama, plates with carvings of names of our deceased relatives. It's found in a lot of places/temples alright. And I don't see why there wouldn't be any collection here either. considering it is built by the forefathers who roughed the trecherous sea to settle in Malacca 300 years back.

Yes. I visited the temple as a tourist. But all the time that I was taking photos of the beauty inside the temple, I couldn't stop feeling as if I've not been doing my part as a devotee. I mean... Hmmm... Nevermind, I just don't know how else to express it...

I'm God fearing. And I need to believe there's someone 'up there'. And I told you over and over, I'm not a science man. I believe in Gods. I believe in heaven and hell. And I definitely believe in the 'other realm'.

And I don't see why I shouldn't be. Doctors are not Gods. Healing hands some of them may be called, but death is still inevitable. So I need that faith. I need that religion. And I need to believe. That we're born onto this world, live a good life of a few decades, and death is not the end.

Now I sound like I'm a Christian/Muslim huh?

The thing about me is... I believe in the existance of God. Goddess. Angels. Death God for that matter as well. And I believe it is important that we need to. Because not everything can be explained by theory of Science. So yeah. I believe in the importance of religions.

And I totally am amazed by the temple.