A six-tiered Chinese temple on a hill, free, and at its best strung with ten thousand lanterns for the new year.
Thean Hou sits on Robson Heights, a hill south of the centre, and it is a 1989 building — which surprises people, because it looks older and because it is very large.
It was built by the Hainanese community of Kuala Lumpur, and it is one of the biggest Chinese temples in Southeast Asia.
Who it is for
The principal deity is Thean Hou — Mazu, the Heavenly Mother, the sea goddess of Fujian and Hainan, protector of sailors and fishermen.
That is significant. The Chinese communities of Malaysia came by sea, in enormous numbers, from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, to work the tin mines and the plantations. A temple to the goddess of safe sea passage, built by their descendants, is a statement about how they got here.
Guan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion, and Shui Wei Sheng Niang, the Waterfront Goddess, share the main altar.
The temple is explicitly syncretic — Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian elements together, which is characteristic of Chinese religious practice in Malaysia rather than an oddity.
The building
Six tiers, red columns, sweeping tiled roofs with dragons on the ridges, and a great deal of gold.
The main prayer hall on the top level is the centre. Below it are halls, a Tortoise Pond, a medicinal herb garden, a wishing well and — a detail people enjoy — a garden of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals as statues.
There is also a marriage registry on site, and Chinese Malaysian weddings happen here constantly, particularly at weekends.
The views over Kuala Lumpur from the upper terraces are genuinely good, and take in the Petronas Towers and Merdeka 118.
Fortune telling
There are kau chim sticks in the main hall — you shake a cylinder until a numbered stick falls out, then take the number to a rack of printed slips for your reading. Visitors are welcome to try; there is a translation service of sorts.
When to come
Chinese New Year (late January or February) is the event: thousands of red lanterns, a flower and food market, lion dances, and the temple open late.
Mid-Autumn Festival and Wesak Day are also substantial.
The rest of the year it is quiet, which has its own appeal.
Practical
Free, open daily, long hours.
Dress modestly — covered shoulders and knees. It is a working temple.
There is no station nearby. A Grab from the centre takes about fifteen minutes and costs very little. Walking up from the main road is steep and unpleasant in the heat.
The Sri Mahamariamman Temple in Chinatown is the Hindu counterpart and is much more central.
