Yong Chuan Tian Temple Chap Goh Mei Procession 勇全殿神庙马六甲游行

Posted by Your Melaka February 18, 2017

Yong Chuan Tian Temple Chap Goh Mei Procession 勇全殿神庙马六甲游行

勇全殿神庙

Watch video HERE.

9:00 a.m. The sky was beautiful, varying intensity of bluish color shaded by smearing and fading white when I heard the sound of drums and gongs from ahead in the backyard of the Yong Chuan Tian’s Temple. The sound-distance got me to take bigger steps as I was a little late. When I exit the main door, the sweepers comprised of elderly women were already at the Newton Food Centre.

I captured the first video clip of the procession on Jalan Thamby Abdullah which lead to Pay Fong 2 Primary School. On the T-junction, I focus my attention on a small chair held by two men in white and immediately recognized the unique heritage, this temple has preserved till today. After these two men started to walk away from there, I hastened to where the Salvation Army faced the Muzium Penjara. Here, I shot the second video clip.

The third video clip was shot in front of The Settlement Hotel [please hashtag #SettlementStory] when the dragon was floating through. By the way, if you think every hotel is the same, that is; stay, and food, The Settlement Hotel would change your thought because every section of this hotel tell a story.

Hilir Garden Ice Café is often a place to cater for my breakfast because of the yummy Chai Tow Kway and the Wined-Vermicelli. Though there are many other selections for a change of taste, I just couldn’t resist Teochew radish cubes.

I stood diagonally to this café to record another video, as the background hoping to share with tourists the yummy local street food. However it was a short video in a seconds length because the first temple in Ujong Pasir, Yong Chuan Tian’s procession is going to call at is meters away. The reason was simply the amazing symbolic gestures the guardian of the temple would act before the sedan chairs greet the deities of each temple. Appended below is one example of how the sedan chairs greet the deities of a temple. [*1]

[*1] Location: Ujong Pasir

Before the sedan chairs and the medium have completed the ritual, Yong Chuan Tian’s leading deity graced by traditional lanterns made way into Taman Sinn. [*2]

[*2] Location: Taman Sinn

As the procession moved on, I have walked to the location of a squash court that I had played during the 1980s, and the drums and gongs of the Monkey God Temple began to welcome the Yong Chuan Tian’s deities, sedan chairs and the mediums. [*3]

[*3] Location: Taman Kasturi

The next temple that the procession would call is the Sam Tiong Keng which I have been closely following its events since 1966. The next temple that the procession would call is the Sam Tiong Keng which I have been closely following its events since 1966. Sam Tiong Keng is located on Jalan Semabok where showrooms of Honda, Toyota and Seong Hoe Premium Motors take the prime location to showcase their cars. . If you have been to Sam Tiong Keng in the past, you would agree with me, that the present arch is bigger though both are beautiful. [*4]

[*4] Location: Jalan Semabok

Sam Tiong Keng has one of the best lion-dance troops in Melaka and during the Chinese New Year, many shops, businesses organizations, schools, homes, offices and shopping malls …. requested the lion-dance troop to their places.

[*4] Location: Jalan Semabok

I saw a medium being manned by the deity after the chanting, the drums and the gongs and preparing to welcome the procession.

[*4] Location: Jalan Semabok

Nezha Temple was the third stop, Yong Chuan Tian procession made and I was there before the sedan chairs and the mediums arrived. This temple previously located in a kampong, is now standing bigger on Jalan Johor, Semabok. Nezha is a protection deity in Chinese folk religion and was born during the Shang Dynasty when his father, a military commander named Li Jing, became the Pagoda-Wielding King. [*5]

[*5] Location Jalan Johor, Semabok

[*6] Location: Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho

The Monkey God Temple on Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho [Templer Avenue as previously named by the British] is the oldest temple devoted to the Monkey Deity in Melaka. [*6] The local folks call this deity, Sun Wukong and he has 72 transformations power and can in one somersault, can travel 60 thousand miles. This deity has two birthdates; the 16 lunar day of first lunar month and the 16 lunar day of the eighth lunar month.

[*6] Location: Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho

Persatuan Heng Ann Melaka sit on a big piece of land on the foot of Bukit Cina. This clan association has a majestic hall devoted to the deity, Mazu. [*7]

[*7] Location: Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho

On the photograph below, you see a very old roundabout on the foot of Bukit Cina. The procession has paraded here by noon where lunch goers enjoying the famous roasted-pork rice turn to the roadside as spectators. [*8]

Photograph of http://generalabout.blogspot.my

[*9] Location: Jalan Bunga Raya

Bao An Kong is adjacent to Ramada Plaza and the temple compound give diners, China’s imperial dining ambience from sunset till late night. [*9] Opposite Bao An Kong, you can enjoy great Nyonya cuisine or mamak’s cuisine or even Malay cuisines at Seri Sahabat. Whichever restaurants you picked, The Shore Shopping Gallery and The Swiss Garden Hotel is a walk 5-minutes or less from where you would be.

[*9] Location: Jalan Bunga Raya

Youtiao is a food of the East, crispy as the outer skin but with tangy inner where many mahjong “kaki” prefer to enjoy with a cup hotly brewed coffee. Melaka’s oldest homemade Youtiao is just on the corner, a hundred feet away. Enjoy !

[*9] Location: Jalan Bunga Raya

[*10] Location: Pasar Baru Jalan Kee Ann

At [*10] the procession pause for an hour for devotees lunch prepared by the temple and this is the place, Melaka biggest fish market operated before the move to the present Hang Tuah Mall. Due to development, this market was relocated to Melaka Sentral.

[*10] Location: Pasar Baru Jalan Kee Ann

Over the next few photographs [*11] you see the procession and the sweepers getting rid of wandering souls.

[*11] Location: Hang Tuah Mall

[*12] Location: Jonker Walk

Wah TeckKeong Temple is one of the ten temples I would seek for protection during a selected day withing the first eight lunar days of the first lunar month. It was almost three in the afternoon, when I shot this picture while a man was checking the firecrackers which lined from the temple overpassing the Jonker Walk Stage till the Chong De Tang Temple which is near to the concrete arch that divide Jalan Kubu and Jalan Tokong. [*12]