Snake Temple, Penang
Well this had to be certainly the most interesting temple I visited in Malaysia. The Snake Temple in Bayan Lepas is a temple full of Crotalinae snakes aka Pit Vipers. These snakes have long hollow fangs which will inject you with a proteotoxic venom, this type of venom wont paralyse you but will eat away at you from the inside out. The venom is basically a highly-evolved digestive fluid which will start destroying your cells, blood and muscle tissues so I tried hard not to scare them too much with the flash.
The only other thing you will notice in Snake Temple is the stink of all the burning incense. It is the sacred smoke from the incense which is supposed to render the snakes harmless, considering I saw an old man milking one of the snakes I consider this very doubtful.
Snake Temple was build around 1875 for the memory of a Buddhist monk called Cheng-Swee Chor-Soo Kong, or Chor Soo Kong for short. A monk was traveling from China in the 1800s to Penang and had a statue on him of Chor Soo Kong and talked of great myths and legends of this deity’s power as a healer. In 1873 when David Brown, a British resident found out about Chor Soo Kong and prayed to him he was apparently cured of an illness. It return for his cure David Brown donated a tract of his land so a temple could be built for the homage of Chor Soo Kong.
Comment by david on 25 June 2007:
hey alex I came across your blog. Since you seem to enjoy travel check out my travel sites. we are whoelsaer for latin america and europe
http://www.allcheapfares.com and Justairfare.com
we have a spanish site; ticketbarato.com and i started my own blog site for tips http://www.printnpost.com also we are going to fix up the sites to grow into tours so if you have any cool pics of your trips you toke let me know and i’d love to feature them on the site.
later!
Comment by david on 25 June 2007:
hey alex I came across your blog. Since you seem to enjoy travel check out my travel sites. we are whoelsaer for latin america and europe
http://www.allcheapfares.com and Justairfare.com
we have a spanish site; ticketbarato.com and i started my own blog site for tips http://www.printnpost.com also we are going to fix up the sites to grow into tours so if you have any cool pics of your trips you toke let me know and i’d love to feature them on the site.
later!
Comment by Rentals 365 on 28 November 2007:
i don’t like snakes… but i really love your blog.
it is really good 🙂
if you want check my site: http://www.rentals365.com
Thanks
Comment by Rentals 365 on 28 November 2007:
i don’t like snakes… but i really love your blog.
it is really good 🙂
if you want check my site: http://www.rentals365.com
Thanks
Comment by meatball on 16 April 2008:
i just went there Feb 25… nice experience.
i hope i can travel like u too!
Comment by meatball on 16 April 2008:
i just went there Feb 25… nice experience.
i hope i can travel like u too!
Comment by B&B Blackpool on 11 August 2009:
I visited Penang once in 1969. I was about 8 years old and we had driven up from Singapore (I do recall it was a long way).
Can’t really remember any temples or snake temples indeed but I can remember seeing lots of live snakes and lizards that has fallen into the monsoon drains that run down the side of every road.
Comment by B&B Blackpool on 11 August 2009:
I visited Penang once in 1969. I was about 8 years old and we had driven up from Singapore (I do recall it was a long way).
Can’t really remember any temples or snake temples indeed but I can remember seeing lots of live snakes and lizards that has fallen into the monsoon drains that run down the side of every road.
Comment by Cheryl on 30 August 2009:
Hello,
I’m the editor for http://confessionofdtravelholics.blogspot.com
This blog had just being established not long ago, aim is to link travel bloggers together and post their travelogs here. It’s gonna be a happening space in future. If you’re interested to be one of the authors, you’re always welcome to join us, I will grant you the access to this blog. Posts in English or Chinese are all welcome.
By invitation only. Drop me an email at [email protected] if you’d like to accept this invitation. Looking forward to your reply.
With regards,
Cheryl
Comment by Cheryl on 30 August 2009:
Hello,
I’m the editor for http://confessionofdtravelholics.blogspot.com
This blog had just being established not long ago, aim is to link travel bloggers together and post their travelogs here. It’s gonna be a happening space in future. If you’re interested to be one of the authors, you’re always welcome to join us, I will grant you the access to this blog. Posts in English or Chinese are all welcome.
By invitation only. Drop me an email at [email protected] if you’d like to accept this invitation. Looking forward to your reply.
With regards,
Cheryl