Thean Hou Temple

We continued our exploration of cultural sites in KL last Saturday at the Thean Hou Temple.  While the Batu Caves represent the Indian influence in Malaysia, Thean Hou Temple represents the Chinese influence.  The temple is primarily Buddhist, but also has elements of Confucianism and Taoism. It's very colorful, and we enjoyed exploring.

I drove us there pretty early in the day, so there wasn't much traffic, and we're getting used to the utterly confusing maze of roads and exits.  We mostly made the right choices, and we easily found street parking once we got there.  

Entrance was free, since it is also a place of worship.  There's a garden in front with animal statues representing the different Chinese zodiac years.  There were barriers funneling us into the temple first, so we saved the garden for the end.

We walked up a bit to get to the central temple area.

Jeff and Elena took off their shoes and went in to check out the main worship area.

There was also a nice view of the city from the central courtyard.  We drove up a couple hills to get to the temple.

The whole temple was so beautifully decorated that we couldn't resist spending time taking photos.  I especially loved all the dragons on top of the temple.

Jeff got a great close up.

When we got around to the other side of the temple, we found a curved opening with another statue and a path down to more gardens.

Down a ways we found a smaller temple that wasn't open, but it had rat statues in front of it.  Vivian, who was born in the year of the rat, wanted to pose with one.

To the side of that temple was the entrance to a Chinese herb garden.  There were paths to walk down the hill and through the plants, so we enjoyed exploring there.

Our last stop was the zodiac display.  We each found our year and decided whether or not we agreed with the description.  Vivian found her rat and liked the fascinating descriptor.

Jeff found his rabbit, but wasn't so sure about cautious as the main descriptor.

Elena the horse gladly accepted graceful,

and I thought the aesthetic next to my ram perfectly summed up my appreciation of the place.

Jeff couldn't resist some fun with photography, and he got a shot that made it look like the tiger was biting down on the horse's head.

By that point, it was starting to get hot and the parking was filling up.  We took that as our sign to leave, and we managed to get home pretty smoothly.  It was a fun place to explore, and we're glad that we got there early when it wasn't hot and crowded.