I’m sitting in a dark hallway, charging my computer with the outlet reserved for the toaster and the internet here is so slow I feel like ‘m back in the days of dialup. Obviously I’ve been spoiled.
Yesterday I took a walk along the Northern part of Georgetown to visit a cemetery and two Buddhist temples.
The cemetery is Protestant and Roman Catholic and one of it’s most notable residents is Francis Light, the founder of Penang.
On the way to the temples I walked down a street with a bunch of beautiful old mansions. Some of them had been turned into guesthouses and businesses but others looked like they were still private residences.
The Buddhist temples are right across the street from one another. One is Burmese and the other Thai and it was interesting to see how they differed.
On the way back I found one of the hawker centers (where the food vendors congregate). This seems to be the trend here to have multiple vendors together and actual seating as well.
Poppa wants to know how hot and humid is it? Your nearing the equator now, but maybe there's an ocean cooling effect? The temples are beautiful, well maintained, who does the work? What are their wages like?
ReplyDeleteIt's very humid but the temperatures are just in the 80's.
DeleteI'm not sure about here but I know in Thailand most of the unskilled labor was done by the monks and for everything else, and the supplies, the temples are always collecting money for restoration and maintenance.
Are the temples used primarily by monks? Do regular people go to the temple daily, weekly, a couple holidays? Do the monks teach people?
ReplyDeleteI always see people praying at the temples but I'm not sure how often they go, definitely on holidays and other ceremonies like funerals. The monks always seem eager to talk to visitors, and some of the temples have organized times when the monks will talk to people about Buddhism.
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