Yueh Hai Ching Temple 粤海清庙…….. My thoughts after its makeover

This is the place that i use to visit with Grandma when I was a little boy. And then as i grew into adulthood, i went with my dad and now that i am working, I came with the office as they engaged the temple to help in gathering blessings for their businesses for the new year.

This place is about 130 years old ? Wiki says it was build in between 1850 – 1855. Which means when i first knew it, it was already “grandfather”, now 35 years have passed since i first known “grandfather”, “He” has undergone various transformation now that it is listed as a heritage site. “He’s” got new roof, new sculpture figurines done up by some experts in China and re-installed here, a spanking new coat of paint………

But something went lost……how should i put it ?

OK, lets say you are used to Grandfather smoking lots of “555” cigarettes, chewing betel buts, messy hair and you sort of get used to his tea-stained teeth in between his old metal dentures with sometimes a gold tooth. It smells weird but you know its grandfather.

Now, this place…….Grandfather quit smoking, put on a suit and tie, neat combed hair and have perfectly white and neatly arranged teeth implants. Even the smell is gone. It looks like grandfather, laughs like grandfather but deep inside me, it does not feel like the same person anymore.

Millions of dollars have been spent on this place. It now looks perfect and beautiful. To preserve the million dollars sculptures, rules are setup. You cannot do this, You cannot do that. A few of the previous caretakers are still around but there were also new people. It felt distant….I felt like I lost something.

What used to be a place that evokes lots of emotions and feelings is now just a record on a book. And maybe it will encourage more visits from tourists. This is exactly what happens to our Chinatown, isn’t it ?

Perhaps I should give it sometime, many have made efforts to do up the whole place and they wouldn’t want to see it tainted so soon.

New Sculptures, New Temple

Its a little far to see in this picture….but those little sculptures on the top of the roofs ? Hand Made in China by experts.

Zzzz…..

A Teochew Puppet performance which i have not seen for a long time. Was it ever held here ?

Generations have passed…..these are no longer popular….

http://rojakrendezvous.blogspot.sg/2010_04_01_archive.html

I took this picture of another blog….but you can see what we were able to do in the past. It was the signature of this temple to have these hanging incense.