九皇星君/九皇 Nine Emperor Gods Festival

For the last two nights, my wife and I have gone to the Tow Boo Keong temple here in Ipoh to either see or partake in the Nine Emperor Gods Festival 九皇星君/九皇. The festival is a celebration for the nine sons for the North Star Goddess: Tou Mu. The arrangement of the event was excellent and the entire night was filled with excitement and an air of festivities. Everyone was smiling and as friendly as could be, however all were running around trying to do their prayers and find a space to place their Joss Sticks. Men and women, children and the elderly were all about in sort of a chaotic coordinated procession marking their way around the various deities to be blessed. Even I myself took part in this event and with great pride and homage to the respect of Buddhism.

Another aspect of this even is the food, the glories array of food, basic, everyday, hawker style delicacies abound the temple and at a price so low that you cannot help yourself but to gorge on all the wonderful vegetarian delights that fill the hall. There is a real air of holiday celebration throughout the dining area as volunteers rush to fill orders and to clean the tables for the next batch of hungry worshippers that comes in droves all day and night long. I have been feasting for the last two nights on Mee Hoon and potatoes as well as the pink buns that are to be found everywhere along the temple road. Traditionally you will find Tortoise Buns in all shapes and sizes, these buns are made throughout the day by volunteers and then sun dried before they are steamed to a very surprising texture.Also you will notice a grand style Chinese Opera in every traditional manner that can be thought of. Starting roughly at 8:30 PM the opera will continue into the late night before a full procession of volunteers who are considered to be the clean ones (who have observed a strict diet of vegetarian food for nine days) all dressed in white. This procession will leave the temple and head down the city center for a couple of kilometers to the river front will prayers and offerings will be made before returning back to the temple. This parade of the sons will start around 1:00 AM. This is an event not to be missed, I only wished I had seen this event more often throughout the last ten years I have been here in Malaysia – well there will be many more that I will avail myself to in the future.