Tua Pek Kong Temple at Kampung Pasir Panjang Laut

Kuan Yin and Tua Pek Kong temple side by side

Before our Sitiawan trip, I read about this temple in the Internet. Tua Pek Kong temple or Kuan Yin Temple, a Taoism temple, is a tourist spot in Sitiawan. On a recent public holiday, there were as many as 150 buses loaded with tourists coming to this temple. Wow!..

The arch at the entrance

There were ample of parking lots in front of the temple. As soon as we were in the temple, we bought the prayer paraphernalia from the counter in the temple to pray. We also lighted the spiral joss sticks. One thing for sure was it could burn longer than ordinary joss sticks.

We wrote our Chinese names on the pink paper and it was attached to the spiral joss stick

The temple caretaker putting up our spiral joss sticks

It was so relaxing to be in the temple's compound.  There was a beautiful garden with water features behind this temple. There were benches to sit and relax.

Ponds and fountains behind the temple

Man-made waterfall

Statues of Chinese gods in the temple's garden

We wanted to photograph the always hungry Japanese carps so I bought a pack of fish food from the temple and fed them. Within seconds, the whole school of carps came swimming near us and trying to grab the food. We could not stop clicking our cameras and videoing them.

If you want to look at the fish close up, try feeding them.

Statue of old man fishing at the pond

There were many stalls set up in the temple's compound. There were Sitiawan's special Gong Pians, fish maws, red yeast rice wine and many local products sold. The fish maw was extra large in size so, we ended up buying two packs of fish maw.

Well, we wanted to visit the famous Tua Pek Kong Temple because we were attracted by the gigantic deity statues facing the sea. When we stood near the gigantic statue, we did not even reach the ankle of the statue.

Tua Pek Kong (centre) and Kuan Yin (left) statues

Oh yes, while I was sitting and enjoying the sunset, I saw temple devotees, including a couple of Indians, were busy washing themselves with the water flowing from a pipe directly below the gigantic Kuan Yin statue. Later, they would fill up the plastic bags with the water. There was another woman who used the pail filled with water to pour over the number plates of her MPV. Out of curiosity, I asked an aunty sitting on the next bench. Then, I learned that the water was  presumably blessed, so one can use it to wash their faces, hands, and legs or take it home to bathe for good luck and health. Or wash your car number plate to strike your plate's number. Not to miss out, I also went and packed three packs home to be distributed among my family members. The temple was very thoughtful as they also prepared free plastic bags and rubber bands at the table near the water pipe.

Get your blessed water below the Kuan Yin statue

The temple was located near the beach. We were there in the evening so we were lucky to see the sunset at the beach.

View of sunset from the temple

By the way, there was also a mangrove swamp area in the temple's compound.

The mangrove swamp called Taman Monyet