Visiting a Hidden Temple

Have you heard of Esoteric Buddhism (密宗) before?

To be honest, I know almost nothing about it as well. Erm...

According to Wikipedia, Esoteric Buddhism is one of the schools of Buddhism. Its teaching is associated with Tantra and "secret mantra", which were taught in private by Buddha Shakyamuni. 

Due to its secretive nature, this religion is often portrayed in novels as a heretic cult. For example, in one of the Chinese supernatural novels that I read, an evil Esoteric Buddhist monk convinced a patient to buy a haunted statue and place it in the patient's ward. The ghost resided in the statue then fed on the patient's vigor and Qi. It was later revealed that the monk actually collaborated with the ghost to reap benefits from the blind faith of the desperate believers.

The novels I read definitely did not paint the religion in a good light, but I am not going to lie: thanks to these novels, my interest in this religion is piqued. Hence, I did not hesitate to enter when I had a chance to visit an Esoteric Buddhist temple yesterday.

The temple that I visited is named 密宗毗沙门天王财神殿. I couldn't find the exact English translation for the name, so I would roughly translate it as Temple of Vaisravana, the God of Treasure. My dad and I discovered this temple while we were on our way back from a pomelo farm in Tambun, Ipoh.

Let's dive into some of the pictures I took yesterday ~!

The entire facility is huge; buildings are connected via hallway, which is one of my favorite architectural components. Here, we walked past a hall adorned with gigantic vases and a bridge before we reached the base of the tower. On both sides of the bridge are prayer wheels, which are to be turned as believers cross the bridge.

As soon as I entered the tower, I was awed by the majestic benzene ring structure and the colorful layers. 

As shown in the picture above, there are eight floors in this tower (nine if you count the ground floor as the first floor). However, when we reached the top floor, we discovered that it is further divided into few levels of balconies. We didn't climb up to the balconies though, cause they are only open during festivals for believers who want to carry out religious rituals.

The picture below is a side view of the inner structure of the tower. The pillar on each platform is embellished with miniature statues of Buddha riding on a peacock.  

As seen in the two pictures above, the entire second floor of the tower is furnished with prayer wheels. As they turned, the prayer wheels made a rhythmic sound, which evokes serenity.

The picture below shows another form of prayer wheel. Unfortunately, I forgot to record the name of this object. Its size is akin to a merry-go-round. 

The picture above is my favorite shot of the day. Sadly, the shot I took is not symmetric! I edited the picture a few times and this is the best I can come up with. 

The colors of the gazebos are striking and young. In contrast, the incense burner is plain and ancient. When all these elements are put together in a frame, it perfectly represents how major religions in the world sustain and strive in general: the rules and practices do not become obsolete. Instead, they become traditions which nurture new believers.

This statue is located at the top floor of the tower. Honestly, my first thought when I saw this was: how much cleaning is it going to involve in order to keep all the creases clean? :p

Another architectural component which I am fond of is window. I particularly like casement windows and vertical pivot windows (as shown below). It is because a huge part of the window extends outwards and in a sense, it is welcoming the outside view to be part of the interior design of the room. Of course, the window is great for ventilation as well. The only downside to this window is that it is an easy entry for birds. Urgh, I hate birds.

As a proud daughter of Ipoh, I think the view from the top of the tower is worth the climb. I did not edit or put any filter on this picture.

This visit was rewarding as I got to see many exotic designs. Since the place is free for all to enter, I will put this on my list of recommended places to visit in Ipoh. If you are in Ipoh and you run out of places to explore, do consider going to this temple.