Wat Photichareantham @ Sungai Puyu, Butterworth

Before I proceed, for those that are not familiar, ‘wat’ means temple in Thai language. And as for Photichareantham , I have no idea. This Wat is the one of many Thai Buddhist temples in Malaysia.

You will see this archway before going into  the Wat’s  compound

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close up of the arch – Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree with 5 of his disciples

 

The 2 white elephants standing guard

 

The highest structure in the temple grounds would be this building,

 

Buddha statues ( and some statues of monks) can be viewed through the glass windows.

 

Outside the main shrine hall, there was a counter  selling amulets and stuff. Inside the main shrine hall, there was another counter selling amulets, Buddha statues, blessing stuff as well as doubling up as a donation counter

The Buddha statues in the main shrine hall

 

There were  a row of Buddha statues on a table .  8 in all in various poses, next to donation bowls and signs of days of the week and some dates  .Some of  the Thai temples back home in Kelantan  have something similar, but just with the day ( mon, tues, weds..), and one would light incense ,offer flowers or donations etc to the statues for the day that one was born in ( yeah, you might know the date but it can be tricky knowing the days that you are born in, horrr ?)   but the ones at this Wat had the dates as well as and ‘extra’ for Wednesday night- I am not too sure what this meant..

 

 We saw an  Indian family ( man , woman and a child) being blessed by a monk, the monk chanted something, took something paper thin,  size of a 20 cent coin and golden , place it on the man’s forehead and rub it with his forefinger, until the thin golden disc disappears, chant some more and waved his arm to indicate that the ‘ceremony’ has ended , next was the woman’s turn,  the monk repeated the same actions, and as for the child, the Indian family needed a translator and the lady manning the counter outside the temple was summoned . The lady spoke in Thai to the monk and said that the boy can eat  but does not behave as a child his age should i.e. a bit slow . Monk then started to  chant and repeat the rubbing gold disc of forehead etc . there were 5 to 6 people waiting in line for blessings, including two  20-ish looking guys with gelled hair and flashy sunglasses.

When  you are in the temple grounds, you will find  that it  is breezy and cool due to that  the temple grounds are surrounded by trees, we saw a couple of men sitting around the temple and chitchatting, a bunch of younger guys on motorbikes chitchatting  under the trees, in one of the rooms,  we also saw a lady teaching some kids the Thai alphabet . this seemed like a good ‘hangout’ place for the locals

Below is  a pix of pne of the  ‘kuti’ i.e. a monk’s  accommodation .(spot the cockerel )

 

There is also another smaller hall near to the kutis, a monk seemed busy at work at a table, the place was adorn with pixs of the temple activities, monk robes ( for donation, maybe)

 I am not sure how to get to this temple, but this link   http://www.penang-traveltips.com/wat-photichareantham.htm provide clear directions :

 Extract : It is located at Taman Pandan Indah, just before the Butterworth Outer Ring Road. From Butterworth, go along Jalan Sungai Puyu and turn left into Lorong Bunga Rampai 4. Then immediately turn right into a service road that parallels Jalan Sungai Puyu. The service road is Lorong Pandan Indah. Go all the way  to the end, where you will see a Chinese temple, the Sungai Puyu Tua Pek Kong Temple. At the temple, turn left, and you will see the archway to Wat Photichareantham.