Thean Hou Temple

We went to this beautiful Chinese temple in Malaysia, called Thean Hou. What fascinated me, other than the gorgeous architecture and beautiful idols, was the mechanism for knowing each person's future! There were these 3 huge steel cylinders, with a number of drawers built into each. A hole in the cylinders holds some sticks, each of a different length. Each fortune seeker needs to bunch up all the sticks together, hold them a little aloft and then release them so that the bunch falls into the hole and scatters a bit! The person then needs to pick out the longest stick (the one protruding out the most) and read the number written on it. She/he then needs to look for the drawer having the same number, open it and read the chit placed inside! Voilà! There's what your future holds!

Doing this ritual was a lot of fun and I ended up doing it thrice, not being pleased with the first two predictions! The third one pleased me immensely. I guess I did it right only the third time! :-D :-D :-D

Everything about the temple was beautiful; the idols (Goddess of Mercy), the little prayer stools that I so fell in love with, the architecture, the lamps, the joss sticks; all these gave the temple a nice, serene feel! The outside garden even had all the animals of the Chinese zodiac neatly lined up!