Day out in Genting Highlands Part 2: Chin Swee Caves Temple
Date of visit: 26 May 2023 | Last updated: 19 July 2024
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Deep in the ancient rainforests of Pahang, a giant temple complex hugs the slopes of Mount Ulu Kali. A nine-storey pagoda stands watch over red-roofed temples and writhing dragons. Deities and demons hold the balance of mortal lives in their hands. The smell of incense and the sound of prayer hang thick in the air.
Up the hill, a mini Las Vegas: casinos, bars, restaurants, shopping malls, theme parks. A 35,000-square-foot nightclub. The largest hotel in the world.
If you want a surreal day out, look no further than Genting Highlands.
I visited this popular 'hill station' - just 45 minutes from KL - when my sister and her friend were over from Vancouver, stopping at Chin Swee Caves Temple on the way up to the summit. See my post Day out in Genting Highlands Part 1: Resorts World Genting & Premium Outlets for some background on Genting Highlands, information about when to visit and how to get here, and to read about the ritzier side of this holiday destination.
It was a few years after opening the resort that Genting Highlands' founder, Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, decided to embark on the monumental task of building a 28-acre temple precinct on the side of the mountain, 1,425 m (4,675 ft) above sea level.
Dedicated to a Buddhist monk from the 11th and 12th centuries called Chin Swee (usually called 'Master Qingshui'), developing the site was certainly an act of devotion. It took 18 years to complete, using manual labour due to the steep, rocky terrain, finally opening in 1994.
Just who was Master Chin Swee? Legend has it that he arrived one day in a village in Fujian, China - the same place Tan Sri Lim was from - and used his mystical powers and other skills to help the inhabitants over the years. The stories about what he did vary, but they include saving the village from drought by summoning rain. After he died, the locals worshipped the monk as a deified ancestor, and the imperial palace conferred a number of titles on him.
The veneration of ancestors and folk heroes is part of Chinese folk religion, an eclectic blend of shamanism, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism - equal parts culture, philosophy and religion. Over the years, Chin Swee Caves Temple has grown to include many other deities linked to these beliefs, and you'll find them depicted all over the site.
To get to the temple, we took a cable car to Chin Swee Station - a free stop on the way to the summit. It was a scenic ride over lush jungle, with panoramic mountains behind us and a tall pagoda emerging from the mist in front of us.
After arriving, we went down a series of escalators to the temple grounds, ending up on an elevated walkway by the pagoda. This took us to a large square (Sky Terrace) with gorgeous buildings and breathtaking views - which was rather unfortunate because we thought it was the main part of the complex. It's not! There's a massive structure underneath the terrace, housing Chin Swee Temple and other attractions, which we didn't get any sense of at the top.
To make sure you don't miss anything, bookmark the map of attractions (you'll also see it when you leave the cable car station). But it does have some inaccuracies and omissions, and the order it lists the attractions isn't always the best for navigation, so I've made some adjustments in my description of the sites below. There's a more detailed map near the pagoda but unfortunately it's not online.
UPDATE: Chin Swee Caves Temple's Facebook page shared a new, more detailed map in February 2024. I've added references about sites shown on that map that aren't on the main map.
What's covered in this post:
- Chin Swee Caves Temple Entrance
- Pagoda
- Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong Hall
- Four General Gods Temple
- Chin Swee Temple
- Sky Terrace
- Buddha Temple
- Statue of Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong
- Waterfall
- Eight Fairies
- Eighteen Immortals
- Laughing Buddha
- Buddha Statue
- Ten Chambers of Hell
- Guan Yin Statue
- Bridge of Fairies
- Gods of Fuk Luk Saw
- Journey to the West
- Nine Colour Dragon Wall of Luck
1. Chin Swee Caves Temple Entrance
You won't go through the dragon-festooned, red-and-gold entrance gate if you come by cable car, so I only got a distant shot of it.
2. Pagoda
From Sky Terrace, head down the staircase or escalator to the pagoda (item #2 on the map). Standing nine stories tall, it's easily the most recognisable building on the site.
Inside are a great many Buddha figurines, along with 10,000 "blessing lamps" for worshippers to dedicate to people they wish to be blessed. These look like little lit chambers with glass doors, each containing a tiny buddha carving. I've seen a few sources that say only 1,000 or 2,000 of these lamps remain.
3. Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong Hall
You can walk down to Chin Swee Temple and Four General Gods Temple directly from the pagoda. But I suspect most people go to Goh Tong Hall and take the lift. It's item #6 on the map, described as "Arrival Lobby & Vegetarian Restaurant".
UPDATE: if you do walk down to the temples, you'll see a colourful wall mural just before the staircase. This must be the 'Bodhidharma Mural Painting' shown on the new map on the Chin Swee Caves Temple Facebook page.
Goh Tong Hall is just down the road from the pagoda, with stalls along the way selling refreshments and souvenirs. Although this is the entrance for the lobby, it's actually the 12th floor (Level 12L). If you're coming by car you can either start at the underground parking lot or drive up to the lobby.
The hall and its attached temples are an impressive sight if you can get enough distance to see their scale. In the shot below, you can see Sky Terrace on the left, with Goh Tong Hall - the big white building - on the right, and the terracotta roofs of Chin Swee Temple in the foreground. But this aerial footage gives you the best sense of how sprawling the entire structure is, and how integrated it is with the mountainside.
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| Attribution: Gryffindor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
Chin Swee Vegetarian Restaurant is on Level 12L, its windows overlooking the dragon roofs of Chin Swee Temple. There's also a souvenir shop, as well as a Starbucks with stunning views of the valley on one side and the temple grounds on the other side.
The check-in counter for Goh Tong Hall Residence is on this floor too. The residence has 110 rooms, plus meeting rooms and a meditation hall, but they're reserved for religious devotees and meditation-related activities.
The top floor of Goh Tong Hall (Level 13S) opens onto Sky Terrace - more pictures and information below.
4. Four General Gods Temple
I think the official name for Four General Gods Temple (item #4 on the map) might be 'Four Celestial General Hall' - that's what the Chin Swee Caves Temple website calls it, as well as the new map posted on Facebook.
To get here, take the lift to Level G. You could visit Chin Swee Temple first (Level 7C), but I think the Four General Gods Temple is the 'entrance' to it.
It was very hard to find anything about the four general gods, but I eventually discovered that they're 'door gods'. These are guardians of doors and gates in Chinese folk religions, who keep out evil spirits or bring in good fortune. Apparently deities can also have guardians for their temples, and I found a few sources that mentioned four generals - Zhang, Huang, Su and Li - who protect the entrances of temples dedicated to Master Chin Swee (iNEWS, Our Town, lspeng1951).
UPDATE: the new map on the Chin Swee Caves Temple Facebook page shows an attraction called 'Sword Testing Boulder'. I've no idea what it is (sounds like something out of King Arthur) and can't find anything online - maybe it was recently added. If you want to check it out, it's just a few floors down from Four General Gods Temple, accessible from Level B7.
5. Chin Swee Temple
To get to Chin Swee Temple (item #3 on the map), you can walk up the external staircase or take the lift to Level 7C.
One of the first things that will strike you about the temple is its opulent pillars, covered with coiling golden dragons and colourful images from Chinese mythology.
There are altars to other deities in the temple, but the main altar is a tribute to Master Chin Swee.
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| Attribution: Gryffindor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
Upon closer inspection, you'll see that the monk has a black face. Indeed, he's also known as 'Black-faced Ancestor'. One version of how this came about is that while the monk was meditating, spirits tried to kill him by blowing on his lamp for seven days and seven nights. He survived, but with a badly burned face.
A more colourful version is that ten demons tried to burn the monk alive while he meditated, but such was his skill that he was able to sit, engulfed in flames, for seven days and nights, with only a blackened face to show for it. Four of the demons were so impressed that they decided to follow the master and serve as his guardians. You can see these four demons in the temple, two on either side (not to be confused with the four door gods of the Four General Gods Temple).
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| Attribution: Gryffindor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
Master Chin Swee is also known as "Dropping Nose Ancestor", at least in Taiwan. One story has it that the monk's statue lost its nose when the cave it was in partially collapsed. The villagers put the nose back on - but it drops off again whenever the statue senses an impending natural disaster, serving as an early warning signal!
The back of the temple is, unexpectedly, bare rock. Finally, an explanation for the 'cave' part of the site's name - which, oddly enough, I never see anything about. A small stream of water flows down the rock beside the main altar, next to a sign saying 'Holy Water'.
Stepping outside, you'll be assailed by the views across the valley, and the smells from incense pots on the terrace and coils hanging from the roof, swaying alongside red paper lanterns in the breeze. And just around the corner you can contemplate a little rock garden with a pond and waterfall, inhabited by turtles (symbols of longevity and power in Asia) and koi (symbols of strength and perseverance).
6. Sky Terrace
It wasn't until his 90th birthday (in 2007) that Tan Sri Lim announced the decision to build a new 35,000-square-foot terrace, among other improvement projects. Sky Terrace isn't shown on the map, but it's where you'll find the Statue of Tan Sri Lim, the Waterfall, the Buddha Temple, the Eight Fairies, the Eighteen Immortals and the Buddha Statue.
From Chin Swee Temple, take the lift to Level 13S of Goh Tong Hall. Before exiting onto Sky Terrace, check out the 360° view from the Observation Tower at the back of the hall.
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| Top floor of Goh Tong Hall at Sky Terrace |
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| Top floor of Goh Tong Hall at Sky Terrace |
If you want to walk up to Sky Terrace, take the stairs to the left of Chin Swee Temple, which will take you back to the nine-tier pagoda, and from there you can take the stairs or covered escalator to the entrance gate of the terrace.
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| Entrance gate to Sky Terrace |
Alternatively, you can take the stairs to the right of Chin Swee Temple, which will take you past 24 stone carvings depicting famous stories about filial piety from ancient China. You'll end up back at the Level 12L entrance of Goh Tong Hall. Not far from here is a separate set of stairs going up to the terrace (you'll emerge by a little gazebo at the opposite end to the entrance gate).
UPDATE: the new map posted on the Chin Swee Caves Temple Facebook page, shows an attraction called 'Wishing Bell' next to the little gazebo on the terrace. It must be a new addition as I didn't see it when I was there. You put RM5 into the donation box and ring the bell, presumably while making a wish.
Whichever way you get to Sky Terrace, you can't fail to see the spectacular red rooftops of Chin Swee Temple, next to Goh Tong Hall. They're adorned with intricately carved yellow and gold dragons, against a jaw-dropping view across Klang Valley.
7. Buddha Temple
Although Buddha Temple (item #5 on the map) is not in fact Chin Swee Temple - as I thought! - it's aligned with the main temple below.This is the most perfect little building, and easily my favourite. I felt liberated just looking at it, standing in splendid isolation in the middle of the square, surrounded by mountains and mist, swooping eaves reaching for the open sky.
8. Statue of Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong
The statue of Genting Highlands' founder, which isn't marked on the map, is near the main entrance of Sky Terrace. Tan Sri Lim's life is is a rags-to-riches tale - an immigrant from China who worked as a carpenter, vegetable farmer and petty trader before making a fortune supplying machinery for the tin mining and rubber industries. He eventually ended up in construction, and the rest is history.
9. Waterfall
The Waterfall (item #12 on the map) is next to the statue of Tan Sri Lim. It's a giant wall with a sheet of water cascading down it, overlooked from high above by the statue of Guan Yin, goddess of mercy.
10. Eight Fairies
The eight jolly characters playing music and chess in the square (item #7 on the map) are popular deities who often show up in Chinese arts and fiction. They were once human but became immortal through the diligent practice of Taoism, giving rise to their other moniker, the 'Eight Immortals'. They have the same appeal for Chinese people as the Seven Dwarfs, and each has a unique backstory.
11. Eighteen Immortals
As you exit the square towards the statue of Buddha, you'll see a row of 18 statues on your left (item #11 on the map). You might miss them if you're not paying attention, as they're tucked under a walkway and blend a bit into the stone wall.
The 18 Immortals are the original disciples of Buddha, who became arhats or luohan, meaning that they reached a state of enlightenment and were freed from the cycle of rebirth. But instead of passing to Nirvana upon death, they remain on Earth to protect the faith until the coming of the next Buddha.
12. Laughing Buddha
The Laughing Buddha is item #8 on the map (with the wrong picture, which shows the Buddha Statue). It's another attraction that's easy to miss, as it's in a room underneath the Buddha statue.
The gold wall behind the Laughing Buddha is actually made up of hundreds of little blessing lamps.
The fat, bald, jovial Laughing Buddha is how many westerners think of Buddha. But, as I discovered, they're not the same! Rather, the Laughing Buddha emerged from tenth-century Chinese folktales about an eccentric but cheerful Zen Buddhist monk called Ch'i-t'zu or Qieci. He performed minor miracles like predicting the weather, and carried around a sack full of food to share - which how he became known as Budai, meaning 'cloth bag'.
Just before he died, Budai announced that he was an incarnation of Maitreya Buddha - the future Buddha - and that's how many people see him. Today, most Buddhist temples in East Asia have a statue of Budai (called by different names in different countries). He's a symbol of happiness, generosity and wealth - and rubbing his belly is supposed to bring you luck!
Outside the Laughing Buddha room is a golden dragon with water coming out of its mouth. It isn't on the map, but I think it might be an attraction highlighted on the Chin Swee Caves Temple website called Dragon Mineral Water. I don't really know because the picture on the website is wrong (it's a duplicate of the one for the Holy Water attraction).
UPDATE: the new map posted on the Chin Swee Caves Temple Facebook page shows an attraction called 'Datuk Gong', near the staircase you go down to visit the Laughing Buddha. Datuk Gong is a Malaysian Chinese deity who represents wealth, peace and happiness. You usually see him as an old, bearded Malay man holding a keris (traditional Malay sword), inside a little red shrine - apparently a familiar sight all over Malaysia. It may seem unusual for Chinese people to pray to a Malay god, but the practice originated with Chinese immigrants who fused their belief in a land deity called Tudigong with the local Malay belief in guardian spirits of the land called Datuk Keramat.
13. Buddha Statue
From the Laughing Buddha, head back up to Sky Terrace to see the Buddha Statue, item #9 on the map (with the wrong picture, which shows the Laughing Buddha).
The view from higher up, as you ascend through the Chambers of Hell next door, is particularly wonderful. (Somehow that didn't sound quite right!)
The gateway to hell - signposted with the more pleasant-sounding 'Journey to Enlightenment' - is next to the Buddha Statue, and is item #10 on the map.
Mahayana Buddhism - the dominant form of Buddhism in most of Asia - has multiple hells, with different hells for different sins. The numbers vary but usually there are eight hot hells and eight cold ones. The ones at Chin Swee appear to be the eight hot hells (plus two more hells which aren't really hells), each with a different administrator. Dante has nothing on the inventiveness of these punishments; I was surprised by how gory the scenes were (you've been warned!).
Aside from the number of hells, Buddhist hell differs from Christian hell in that it's not eternal (though still immensely long), and people end up there as a result of karma, not divine judgement.
Registration Office
First stop, registration. Even Hell isn't off-grid.
First Hell Chamber
Here, the keeper of the book of birth and death, and controller of punishments, screens newly arrived souls. If you're good, he'll send you for rebirth to the Heavenly Realm or Western Pureland of Great Bliss (so you have to go to hell first before you can go to heaven - interesting). If you're "equally virtuous and evil", he'll send you to the tenth hell chamber for rebirth back into the human realm.
But if you committed "seriously unwholesome actions", you'll go to one of the other eight hell chambers, located under the ocean. The higher the number, the worse the experience and the longer it lasts. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
None of this happens without hard evidence of course. What I thought was an idyllic picture hanging on the wall is actually the "magic mirror of retribution", which shows in unflinching detail what each person has been up to in their life.
Second Hell Chamber
This is the "Reviving Hell": everyone kills everyone else, then everyone is revived and the whole thing starts again - for the equivalent of 500 human years.
Those who quality for this mildest of punishments include abductors, squatters, perpetrators of bodily harm, malpractising doctors, adulterous couples, and those who commit suicide before discharging their filial obligations. Rather...specific.
For an interlude, visit the statue of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha between the second and third hell chambers (easy to miss as it's tucked under an overhang). The placard says this is the King of Hell, but it's not. A bodhisattva is someone who achieves enlightenment but vows not to enter Nirvana (which they would otherwise do upon death) until all beings can enter together. The bodhisattva's goal is to help everyone achieve enlightenment, not just themselves, which is the ideal in Mahayana Buddhism.
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| Shesmax, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
Ksitigarbha is one of the iconic bodhisattvas. He was once a young girl whose mother died and went to hell for her sins. To try release her mother, the girl performed many acts of piety. One day, someone took her to visit hell, where she discovered that her efforts had paid off and her mother was now in a better place. But upon seeing all the other people in torment, the girl vowed that when the time came, she would not enter Nirvana until all the hells were empty. She eventually became a bodhisattva - undergoing a gender change as well - and made good on her promise.
Third hell chamber
This is the "Black-Line Hell", where demons draw black lines on everyone's bodies, then cut along those lines with burning saws - after which everyone becomes whole once more, only to be chopped up again..for a thousand human years. I didn't see any lines on bodies, but that's the story.
Who warrants such treatment? Prison escapees, thieves and robbers, forgers and fraudsters, or anyone who otherwise exploits or harms for self-benefit, or who's dishonest, disloyal or immoral. And just for good measure, anyone who disobeys their seniors or engages in seduction.
The lawyer in me would argue that a lot of these acts are no worse than 'perpetration of bodily harm', and push for a downgrade to the second hell chamber!
Fourth hell chamber
Welcome to the "Rounding-up and Crushing Hell". Though what I saw seems tame compared to a description I later read, where demons throw wrongdoers into a huge valley and crush them with red-hot hammers, and where the mountains can turn into animal heads with fire-spewing horns butting against each other, crushing the prisoners in the melee. Then everyone comes back to life - only to be crushed again, on repeat for 2,000 human years.
This particular brand of justice is reserved for tax-evaders, rent-dodgers, cheating salesmen, purveyors of fake medicine and generic lawbreakers. Other sinners include those who bully or mislead, neglect the poor or elderly, cause others to have vain or unwholesome thoughts, misuse the influences of the gods, or who intentionally do not attend to their farms! Values sure have changed - or else something has been lost in translation!
Fifth hell chamber
Enter the "Howling Hell", where unfortunates are roasted in fiery buildings with no exits, for 4,000 human years.
This is the place for killers, rapists, fighters and gamblers (ironic this last one, given the casino up the hill!).
But here too you'll also find those who "violated the correct principles", "bullied the virtuous", "haggled over fame and fortune", "harmed others' rights", "wrested away farmland", destroyed water sources, shot birds (including poultry!) - or were simply stingy or jealous or refused advice.
I'm wondering if anyone made it to heaven!
Sixth hell chamber
If you thought the Howling Hell was bad, step into the "Great Howling Hell". More roasting - this time in double-walled metal sheds that offer not even a shred of hope for escape, while simultaneously being beaten with various weapons...for 8,000 human years.
Who ends up here? Vandals, food-wasters, people who disregarded Buddhist teachings and deities, and those who "violated ethical practices". By this point I ceased to question why vandals were punished more severely than killers...
Seventh hell chamber
In this "Heating Hell", wrongdoers are boiled in vast cauldrons of molten bronze, and beaten with hammers whenever they surface - for 16,000 human years.
The crimes? Abortion, gambling (again!), tomb-raiding, misleading children, engaging in unethical business practices, bullying the weak, living lavishly, lying - and even violating common sense. I'm now utterly convinced no one made it to heaven.
Eighth hell chamber
What could be worse that the "Heating Hell"? Why, the "Intense Heating Hell" of course.
It takes place in blazing metal houses more reminiscent of the sixth hell chamber - but instead of merely being beaten while roasted alive, the demons skewer their victims from head to foot with red-hot tridents, while wrapping them in sheets of burning metal. This continues for "half an intermediate kalpa" - which is so long it has no measure in human years.
This is the hell for sinners who haven't shown love and respect to their elders and ancestors - or "caused fear, panic, sadness or worry to their parents and in-laws". Very reflective of Confucian culture!
Ninth hell chamber
This is the "Hell of Ultimate Torment". In one vast, blazing oven, its occupants must suffer all the punishments of the other hells, for an entire intermediate kalpa.
It's for those who "enticed young men", raped young girls or performed abortions...or destroyed properties or simply "caused confusion". Something has definitely been lost in translation!
Tenth hell chamber
Everyone ends up here, except for the paragons of virtue who manage to go directly to heaven. Like the first hell chamber, this is a sorting office, but for decisions about re-entry into the human world, like where someone will be reborn and what form and gender they'll have. Having served time in hell is no guarantee of being human again; it depends on the karma accrued over previous lives.
Before the souls go back, a goddess called Meng Po wipes their memories. In the guise of an old woman, she brews a tea of forgetfulness (often called a soup).
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| Shesmax, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
15. Guan Yin Statue
After emerging from hell, what more soothing sight than the towering statue of Guan Yin, goddess of mercy (item #13 on the map). She's one of the most popular Chinese deities and the only one I've ever remembered the name of.
Guan Yin is actually not a goddess but a bodhisattva - an enlightened person who chooses to remain in the world to guide others to enlightenment - but people can pray to bodhisattvas as if they were deities. Guan Yin is the Chinese version of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion. In Tibet, Avalokiteshvara is known as Chenrezig, and Buddhists see the Dalai Lama as his incarnation.
Originally portrayed as male, Avalokiteshvara later took on a female form in much of Asia, and is sometimes shown with both male and female features, symbolising the bodhisattva's transcendence of dualities.
Next to the statue of Guan Yin, there's supposed to be an attraction called 'Holy Water' (item #14 on the map). The only thing there is a stone feature, which could be a fountain except it's dry in every photo and video I've seen. The only thing called 'Holy Water' is at Chin Swee Temple. The other candidate is 'Dragon Mineral Water' next to the Laughing Buddha. So the mysterious holy water is either in two places at once, or nowhere. Update: 'nowhere' appears to be the answer, as the new map on the Chin Swee Caves Temple Facebook page doesn't mention the site.
15. Bridge of Fairies
A little further along the path after the statue of Guan Yin, you'll see seven fairies descending from heaven, pulling a carriage.
In Chinese mythology, they're the daughters of the Jade Emperor and Empress. The Jade Emperor is the king of gods, like Zeus. His wife is the powerful goddess Xi Wangmu, Great Mother of the West - that's her in the carriage, I presume. She's known for her celestial peaches - from a tree that only bears fruit every 3,000 years - which bestow immortality and can even bring the dead back to life.
16. Gods of Fuk Luk Saw
Just after the Bridge of Fairies is a trio of statues (item #16 on the map). These are the gods known collectively as Fuk Luk Saw (usually written as 'Fu Lu Shou') - meaning fortune, prosperity and longevity. (The Chinese character for 'fortune' can also translate as 'happiness'.) They're among the best-known Chinese gods, whose images are in many households.
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| Shesmax, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
The oldest-looking god, on the left, is obviously Shou (longevity) and the one in the middle is Fu (fortune) - as he usually wears a red robe - so the one on the right must be Lu (prosperity). The giant peaches next to them symbolise longevity (they look just like the buns with sweet fillings that I often see in temples). The deer, meanwhile, represents Lu through a play on words, as 'deer' is pronounced 'lu' in Mandarin.
17. Journey to the West
There are a couple of attractions a little further along the path that aren't shown on the map. They depict the characters in Journey to the West, one of the four great classics of Chinese literature. Guan Yin and the Jade Empress - and probably loads of other deities at Chin Swee - also figure in the story.
Written in the 16th century by Wu Cheng’en, the novel combines adventure, humour and spirituality. It tells the tale of a monk called Xuan Zang - previously banished from heaven - who accepts a request by the emperor to travel west and bring back some Buddhist scriptures to China.
But it's a perilous journey for the timid monk, so Guan Yin gets together a ragtag group of characters to be his disciples and protectors: Monkey King, Pigsy, Sand Monk and White Dragon Horse. All recently kicked out of heaven for misdeeds, this is their chance to make amends and go home. After many trials and tribulations, the gang succeed in their mission and return to heaven.
The first Journey to the West attraction is a series of stone carvings located behind a decorative rock waterfall with a golden statue of the Monkey King in front. (This is shown in the new map on the temple's Facebook page, simply called 'Monkey King'.)
The second attraction consists of statues of the four main characters from the book. (This is shown in the new map on the temple's Facebook page, called 'Journey to the West'.)
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| Shesmax, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
18. Nine Colour Dragon Wall of Luck
The Journey to the West attractions mark the end of the elevated path, and a narrow set of stairs takes you back down to the grounds by the pagoda. There, you can see the nine-dragon wall (#17 on the map) - hanging right under the walkway you come in on when you arrive by cable car. Each dragon is a different colour and signifies a special type of luck.
I had no idea that nine-dragon walls were a thing, but they go back to imperial times. In ancient China, architects built screen walls to block negative energy from entering a property. Royal families used nine-dragon walls because the dragon - a symbol reserved for the emperor back then - signifies power, strength and luck in Chinese culture. The number nine, meanwhile, is pronounced the same way as the word for 'long-lasting', and as the highest single digit, represents the highest level of happiness, longevity and luck possible for mortals (the number ten being reserved for the gods).
Small wonder that in feng shui, nine dragons is as auspicious as it gets, with nine-dragon plaques and prints sold all over the internet.
I was - in my usual way - clueless about Chin Swee Caves Temple when I set out. There was a lot of information at the site, but my eyes glazed over after a while; there was simply too much to absorb all at once. Just as importantly, I didn't appreciate the significance of what I was seeing, in the context of age-old customs and traditions.
It was only when I sat down to write this post that I realised how little I knew about Chinese - and Asian - culture and religion, and how fascinating it all was. I wish I knew then what I know now. So I hope this post helps to make your trip to Chin Swee Caves Temple more than just a blur of temples and statues!
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