Hean Boo Thean Kuan Yin Temple
On the fifth day of Chinese New Year, we went to Hean Boo Thean Kuan Yin Temple, or what we commonly refer to as the floating Kuan Yin temple.
This temple is dedicated to Hean Boo (玄母) or Kuan Yin of the Southern Sea (南海观世音菩萨), the Goddess of Mercy. It is at the reclaimed land of the clan jetties. The floating temple was about to reach its 10-year anniversary on its renovation.
After being stuck in the notorious Weld Quay road, I drove into the entrance, where a helpful guy instantly found a good parking spot for me. We followed a family who had walked into an alley wide enough for a one-way motorbike trip. The one-storey houses had a similar structure to those from the clan jetties.
“The houses here do not have a uniform formation,” Ruien checked the irregular housing pattern.
“It was a fishing village,” I told her. This was a part of the demolished clan jetty for development in 2006. If it was not for the intervention of UNESCO, these houses might not survive today. Another reason was corrosion by salt water, in which any trace of wood was replaced by concrete and bricks.
After passing through the paifang gate, we walked under a festive-season exclusive bridge made of red lanterns. The temple displayed dragon pillars and pavilions, painted in auspicious colours of red, yellow and orange. The extended deck of the temple allowed visitors to listen to the waves of the Straits of Malacca.
“I thought it would be a literal floating temple,” Ruien commented. The photos we saw on Facebook must have been taken during a boat ride or from other clan jetties. A matter of perspective.
Nonetheless, I could clearly see the other surviving Penang clan jetties along the Weld Quay. Look, the Yeoh Jetty.
The Experience
Like most temples, we offered our donation for the incense.
“How do we even start praying?” Ruien asked.
“There’s a guide,” I pointed at the yellow paper on the wall with a list of deities living in the temple. They even provided us with instructions on how many incense to offer to each god.
Following the list, we offered our prayers one by one in the temple. From the large incense pot at the porch to the, we did not dare to skip any altar.
Realising that we had three extra incense on our hands, Ruien asked: “Did we miss anything?”
We checked the list again and tried to recall the number of incense provided. In the end, we offered the incense to Tian Gong. When we walked out of the temple, I noticed the three outdoor incense burners on the deck.
“Great,” I groaned. “Seems like we missed those.”
“We are terribly sorry for skipping you,” Ruien muttered, loud enough for the deities to hear. “Please forgive these two idiots.”
We walked up the side stairway to the upper deck of the temple. There are rows of Kuan Yin statues protected behind the wire gates. Each statue has names engraved at the bottom, could be the names of the patrons.
Near the sea view, a row of miniature statues greeted the incoming visitors. Giving a closer look, I realised those statues depict the 24 paragons of filial piety (二十四孝). Although I was not fully acquainted with these exemplars, I had heard their stories contribute to many Chinese phrases to describe familial love.
We felt raindrops falling gently on our shoulder, and the sky had turned greyer. Our intuition told us it would rain heavily soon, so we headed to a vegetarian restaurant where I had already made a table reservation.
Date of Visitation: 5th February 2022
Address: No. A Reclamation Area, 52, Pengkalan Weld, Georgetown, 10300 George Town
Opening Hours: Daily
9am–2pm (Morning to Afternoon session)
4–6pm (Evening session)