Amazing Snake Temple in Penang

Food, food, food – that is the standard take on the Malaysian island of Penang. Food and a serving of history.

But Penang has at least one other extraordinary angle: a landmark on the fringes of town called Snake Temple, which – you guessed it – is riddled with snakes.

Blue zoo

As if its main reptilian name were not cool enough, in a nod to Penang's sunny skies, Snake Temple is also called Temple of the Azure Cloud. That is what you call style. Can there be anywhere else in the world that has two such classy names?

Either way, you will find the temple south of Penang's capital, Georgetown, on the way to the airport. The temple was built by a grateful patient in honor of the Chinese-born Buddhist priest and healer Chor Soo Kong.

Smooth move

According to legend, Chor Soo Kong was so virtuous that he even looked after the snakes of the jungle. On the temple's 1850 completion, in an event worthy of a Gary Larson cartoon, some local pit vipers seized their chance. They moved into his temple.

Now, the resident de-venomed but fully fanged vipers linger – out of respect to the long-dead monk, it is said. Or they might just prefer living amid the grandeur of one of the world's oldest temples – a true des-res – to being stuck in the jungle. Or they might be hooked on the incense fumes wafting around.

Holy and harmless

Whatever the truth, fans of the snakes' human mentor come from as far away as Singapore and Taiwan to pray on his birthday, the sixth day of the first lunar month. The worshippers reportedly see the vipers as “holy and harmless”. During the day, the vipers languish, apparently paralysed from inhaling the incense smoke. At night, it seems, they slither around, nibbling offerings. Officially, no human has ever been bitten.

Solo style

Still, with their yellow eyes and diamond heads, the vipers look lethal. So mind how you go. If you stray into the temple's ante-room where photographers lurk, for a price you can pose with a python draped round your neck.  But the unleashed vipers coiled around the altar are the temple's heart and soul, or its DNA.Thanks to them, it may well be unique, one of its kind in the world. The snakes you see at temples elsewhere are made of staid old stone instead of scaly sinuous flesh.

Snake temple

Sungai Kluang, near Bayan Lepas Airport, Bayan Lepas, 11900.
Tel: 04-2620202. Yellow Bus 68, 69 from Komtar; mini-bus: 32 from Komtar.

Sources