The Ipoh Cave Temples

My guide pulled up in front of my hotel at 8:00 in the morning - right on time.

"Hello, Mr. Michael," he said, offering his hand for me to shake. "My name is Jaiye."

Jaiye, (rhymes with "eye") a descendant of Tamil Indian immigrants who had worked in the tin mining industry, had grown up and lived his whole life in Ipoh, and was something of an expert on the area's history and culture.

I had a list of things that I wanted to see during my one full day in Ipoh, and after calculating how difficult and expensive it was going to be to take a taxi from spot to spot, had decided that it was the smarter and more economical move to simply hire a driver and guide for the day.

He chatted with me the Heritage Trail I had walked the day before as we drove about half an hour outside of Ipoh to our first stop.

We had arrived at Perak Tong Cave Temple, a quiet and serene Chinese temple built into the cliffs surrounding Ipoh.

I walked past a number of the largest incense sticks that I had ever seen in my life on the way to the temple. Thick, sandalwood-scented smoke twisted up into the air. Jaiye told me that only a handful of people still know how to produce these giant, handmade artisanal joss sticks.

I passed under the towering gates set into the side of the cliff and entered the temple which was set inside a naturally formed limestone cavern.

The temple has a long history dating back a century. In 1926, Chinese immigrants Chong Sen Yee and his wife Choong Chan Yoke discovered Perak Tong Cave. Believing it to be a spiritual place, they requested and received permission from the Perak government to build a Buddhist temple. 

Chong Sen Yee was in charge of the planning and development of the cave temple while Choong Chan Yoke organized funding by securing local and international donations. Perak Tong Cave Temple continued to grow throughout the following century. Today, it's considered to be one of the most important and beautiful Mahayana Buddhist temples in all of Malaysia.

The walls of the cave were covered in colorful murals depicting dragons, Buddhas, and characters from Chinese mythology. At the center of the cave, lit in golden light, was a large Mahayana-style statue of the Buddha.

The murals were started generations ago by the children of the original founders, and have expanded over time, like a tattoo tapestry over the limestone walls. Some figures I recognized, like Buddha and Budai (the fat and jolly monk sometimes called the "Laughing Buddha").

Others depicted figures who I was unfamiliar with, and Jaiye walked with me through the cave, explaining each one to me in turn.

Of note was a painting of a bearded 5th century Indian monk named Bodhidharma, who was said to have traveled to China to spread Buddhism. Upon finding local monks physically weak from extended periods of meditation, Bodhidharma taught them exercises and breathing techniques. His teachings evolved over time into a form of martial arts, and today Bodhidharma is credited as the creator of Shaolin Kung Fu. He is also the founder of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, which places special emphasis on meditation and mindfulness.

As we were leaving the cave, we passed by a large statue of a toad holding a golden Chinese coin in its mouth. The statue was in honor of a real toad who was found living inside the cave a century ago when it was consecrated as a temple. The toad was apparently really big (probably not as big as the statue depicts) and became something of a beloved mascot of the temple.

Back in the car, we drove on towards Sam Poh Tong Temple. Jaiye dropped me off in front of the temple's gates and went to park while I spent a few minutes exploring the gardens out front.

A sign informed me that if I wanted to, I could buy vegetarian food to worship the ancestors. I had no idea what that was referring to, but I would soon learn.

The temple was fronted by a beautiful Chinese garden centered around a large fishpond.

A Chinese garden is meant to "unfurl like an ink painting on a scroll" as you walk along its path, meaning that every angle is landscaped and designed to give the viewer a specific scene.

Shortly, Jaiye arrived. He had parked the car and smoked a cigarette, and now it was time for us to visit the temple itself.

Sam Poh Tong Temple (meaning "Three Gems Cave" or "Three Buddhas Cave") is another Chinese cave temple in Ipoh. Its story dates back to the 1980s when a Chinese Buddhist monk discovered the cave while passing through Ipoh.

The monk made the cave his home and remained there in a sort of extended meditation retreat for the rest of his life. After his death, other monks continued to live there, gradually turning it into a spiritual center. It is the oldest and most iconic Mahayana temple in Ipoh.

After walking through a short, low-ceilinged tunnel in the rock, we suddenly emerged into a sort of natural courtyard; a grotto surrounded on all sides by towering walls of limestone cliff dense with jungle growth.

At the center, lit by rays of sun beaming down upon it, stood a tall red pagoda, the spiritual centerpiece of the temple. The pagoda has been under construction for decades, Jaiye told me. It's built from a special type of very expensive wood, and progress is slow. He said that when he was a child, the pagoda was nearly abandoned and had been overgrown by the jungle.

It's been under construction for some fifty years and is still not finished and opened to the public. Someday, if it's finished, it will house a number of important Buddhist shrines and artifacts.

My guide made a donation of a few ringgit in exchange for a bowl of cherry tomatoes. He led me to a pond behind the temple where a number of slow-moving tortoises were lounging in the sun. He started tossing a few tomatoes to them, then handed the bowl over to me.

Were these the "ancestors" that we were meant to buy vegetarian food for?

Turns out, no... although I was strangely close in my guess. The tortoises represent longevity and health, so feeding them is sort of like asking for their blessings for long life.

The aforementioned "ancestors" that I had been so confused about turned out not to be tortoises but actual human ancestors. I guess I should have known...

By coincidence, we had happened to visit the temple during the Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, an important Chinese festival for honoring ancestors and celebrating the arrival of spring.

Qingming is a day all about honoring one's ancestors. It's sort of like a Chinese Dia de los Muertos, in which families will visit the tombs, graves, or resting places of their ancestors to clean them up and leave offerings like incense or favorite foods. It's a family-centric day of remembrance.

The temple has a multi-floor columbarium where generations of Chinese-Malay families have laid the cremated ashes of their ancestors to rest, each niche marked by a marble or stone tablet displaying the deceased's name and sometimes a photograph.

Back in the car, we drove onwards to Nam Thean Tong Temple, the third and final of the cave temples that we would be visiting that day.

This temple felt much smaller and more modern than the others we had visited. A sprawling courtyard was filled with a number of colorful statues of painted concrete and had a bright amusement park sort of feel.

This cavern was brighter and more well-lit than the others we had visited. Instead of a main central shrine, there seemed to be a handful of shrines scattered throughout the cave, as well as a series of steep stairs leading up to a viewpoint (I did not climb these).

This temple, though still Mahayana Buddhist, felt much more Taoist than the others we had visited. In Chinese culture, there isn't often as much of a distinction between different religious practices than there is in Western religions, and many people follow the "Triple Teaching" of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism sprinkled with a generous dose of Chinese Folk Religion.

The temple is known for its beautiful and colorful mural depicting the Taoist Immortals, important monks, and various figures from Chinese mythology and Buddhism.

Back outside, Jaiye pointed up onto the cliff, where the face of the temple's founder is said to have appeared following his death. If you squint, you can kind of see it.