Any Taoism temples that we can learn and know more about?

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IN GENERAL

Well i would think that there is not much difference in terms of temples between Malaysia and Singapore. temples in Malaysia are mostly dominated by the Hokkiens. there are several tenples like the Thean Hou Sean Boo Kong in KL which is the official Hainanese Association. most temples in Malaysia associate themselves with clans, thus complementing various Kongsi or clan houses. examples could be seen in Mallacca, and Penang.

Temples in Malaysia are mostly former "Tuas" where stages of development from home to a small building and finally extensive renovations are often the case of temple creation. however, Malaysia is still a multiracial country whereby consideration of land and property still remain an issue of concern when building a temple. it is extremely difficult to build a "Temple", because the government makes it quite difficult for worshippers to build one.

The stringent rules and to a certain extend, the strong racial perception and friction only makes it difficult to apply for government approvals and support. this scenario, to my perspective, a major contributing obstacle towards not only building temples but to run various religious activities within the temple grounds.
in the near future, i would share some pics and background of selected temples with years of appeals and application to own a land and build a temple in Malaysia.

regards
chay tiong

There's one obvious different....here most temples/sintua consultations are in the evenings whereas across the causeway, consultations are usually in the day time! ;)

From what i notice is that, some of the Deities (kis) that Malaysia has are abit different from us too.

One reason i believe is that becos of the nature believes that people have in Malaysia are different from us.

In Malaysia, you can see Deities that we dont see in Singapore, worshipping of Deities that we dont does here, etc...

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What are the Deities they have there:

1) Xuan Yuan Huang Di (The Yellow Emperor)
2) San Shan Guo Wang (The Lords of the 3 Mountain) - seldom ppl in spore will ppl worship them, etc
3) A few generals, etc

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Maybe chaytiong will like to do some research on that :P

dear all
well basically to answer REBORN's reply regarding the consultations period, is largely dependent on the temple and tuas here in Malaysia. it strongly depends on the medium here. most mediums live in the temple most of the time because they make a living out of it, thus consultations are done anytime from day to night. it also depends on the temple's rules and regulations and the committee. however most temples do trance at night here in Malaysia especially Penang and Mallacca. a famous "Huat Choo Kong" temple in Mallacca in Peringgit Jaya location have consultations in the afternoon when people break for their lunch hours!! they leave the offices and come to temple!!. some temples are only for consultations during the 1st and 15th every lunar Month and some take a break then and consult other days!!. there is a temple in LABUAN 9 ong yah they have consultations on every 3,6,9,13,16,19,23,26,29th of each lunar month!! at 7 pm onwards. there are some tai siang lao jun temples that have consultations at 6am!!. the logic; well for CHI absorption and energies that make the talismans and blessing more potent.
consultation times in Malaysia varies to the medium's availability and the deity's will.
regards
chay tiong

dear javewu,
well worshippers in Malaysia normally pray to deities that have affinity with them or normally a continuance of the previous generations. deities mentioned like Xuan Yuan Huang Di (The Yellow Emperor), to my knowledge is seldom or never(to all the temples i have visited and have relationship) prayed to.San Shan Guo Wang (The Lords of the 3 Mountain), so far in my life, i gave only seen this in SARAWAK, BAKUN DAM. right in the middle of the dam, there is a temple dedicated to the Drangon King of the eastern sea and the 3 lordds of the mountain.
most chinese here pray to GUAN DI for similar reasons to Singaporeans i suppose and the Hokkiens here pray to KONG TEIK CHOON ONG(FAMOUS), TUA PEK KONG, HUAT CHOO KONG(THE ENG CHOON HOKKIEN), MONKEY KING(NORMALLY CANTONESE PPL) thats about the famous ones. there are Justice Pao temples but rare, 1 in Sandakan,Sabah and KL.
oh yes we emphasise a lot on the 5 Yah, the direction generals. me being one of the Ngoh Yah (2nd generation in the family). however this 5 yah and its importance is fading away as ppl is not so keen on joining the "armies". over here mostly could be spotted in Mallacca, Penang, Kedah and Johor, where the 5 yahs are still heavily emphasised. in mu temple to become a 5 yah.
1st we have to be chosen by the 2nd deity in command or takes care of the 5 yahs in a tua or a temple, then once chosen and delegated the directions to each individuals, each would have to chose a method of DYING!! whether by HANGING (signified by rope), VIOLENT DEATH (signified by sword) and the last one DROWNING (a bowl of water) when we have chosen, then we have to kneel on a sword and let the deity poke through the 5 yah Skewer into our right hand with the left holding joss sticks. then we are sworn upon. there are 10 ppl that we need to become 5 yah because there are 2 sets of them (gua yah and lai yah)
these days it is difficult to find things like this and to a certain extend from what i have learned, Singapore is much influenced than its counterpart.

over in Malaysia, we have never seen deities like ZAI ZAI coming in any temples. as a matter of fact when i joined sintua.com, i was scratching my head what deity goes by the name of ZAI ZAI!! :lol: over here we don even have lian hua san tai zi as well. we call la zha or tiong tuah guan suay. to us there are 3 la cha which there are all the same but differentiated through ages. ages 3,6,9 are the ages for the deity. the 3 years old sucks on a pacifier, the 6 yrs is the 7 sword with 3 heads and nine arms and the 9 yrs is the koon cheong tiong tuah guan suay!. over here we don't worship gan tian ta di as well. most of the time during festivals and processions these are the deities that would come. (as well as often worshipped in Malaysia) LA CHA, GUAN DI, HUAT CHOO KONG, MONKEY KING, ER LANG SHEN, SIONG TAY KONG, CHAY KONG, TUA PEK KONG, A FEW ONG YAH KONG (normally depends). we have also never heard of "or bin tai zhi" as well. i would agree to a certain extent that deities worshipped in Malaysia defers from Singapore. over here it strongly depends on dialects identities. i would personally feel that after being exposed and learning a great deal from Singapore based taoism websites, Singapore worshippers pray to a seemingly large variety of deities than the its counterpart.

erm.. bro.. u mind eleborate on e chosoe a way of dying ?

Hi bro TKL,

Chaytong is now in Sarawak and there's no internet access. Afraid he can't response .

However, what he meant was that those 'choosen' kah-yahs are "mediums",i.e. choosen by certain deity as their five directional generals (East, South, West, North and Central General). Most temples/sintuas uses flags but some uses actual humans (usually younster) to stand in these directions. These kah-yah must paint their faces and wears costume (in accordance with the direction's color), mostly will have the Chinese character dong东, nam南, west西 , bei北, zhong 中 printed.

These ceremonial choosing ways of 'dying' is to signify that they are no longer human, but spiritual energy to perform their duties (during festivals ceremonies).
They can't leave their post during these ceremony!

A very colorful part of folklore taoism! Very entertaining indeed!

icic.. bro.. i still dun kinda get it .. well thanks for it ..haha.. btw.. mind eleborate a "life" of a toh tau ? meaning like wat u all have said for kt n ya kah.. =) would appreciate ..