Kek Lok Si Temple on Penang Island

I’ve uploaded new photos of the beautiful Kek Lok Si Temple, a Buddhist temple located on Air Itam near Penang Hill in Penang, Malaysia. Kek Lok Si is the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia. Photos of the temple include the large assembly hall, hundreds of lanterns and flowers and the view from hill upon which the temple is situated.

The plaque at the Jewish Cemetery of Penang

Malaysia is a country that is jam-packed with diversity including many cultures, environments, foods, terrain and foreign influences throughout its rich history. With all of those great things going for it the question arises as to why Tamar didn’t join me on this visit to Malaysia since we all know she loves these things as much as I do. Well, unfortunately Israel citizens are not permitted to enter Malaysia and Malaysians are not allowed to visit Israel, in fact it even says so in their passports! That’s really too bad for everyone since I’m sure Israelis would have a blast adding Malaysia to their Southeast Asia itineraries and, from some of the young Malaysians I spoke to, there seems to be a fair amount of interest and curiosity about visiting Israel as well.

I started to dig a bit deeper into the current state of Israeli-Malaysian relations and I came across an interesting article written by an Israel professor for whom an exception may have been made (or he holds another passport) since he recently spoke at a conference in Kuala Lumpur. You can read about his impressions of Malaysia and its cultural diversity as well as his experiences with colleagues and conference attendees.

As with anything related to Internet research one thing led to another and I found myself looking into whether there is or ever was a Jewish community in Malaysia. After all, there are thousands of Jews in Iran and nobody from Israel is hopping on a plane to vacation in Iran these days or vice-versa. It turns out that there is a very small Jewish community in Malaysia although it was larger in the past. That past is now represented by the Jewish cemetery that still exists today in the middle of Georgetown on the island of Penang. There were a couple of articles written about this cemetery and they gave me the idea that I could just rent a motorbike and drive around looking for it myself.

The cemetery previously existed on Jalan Yahudi which is Malay for “Jewish Street”. However, the street has since been renamed Jalan Zainal Abidin. I asked a couple of people working at my guesthouse if they knew where that street is or if they’ve even heard of the Jewish Cemetery there but only one person knew the location of the currently named street but he wasn’t familiar with the cemetery. I set out on my motorbike to find Jalan Zainal Abidin and, although it would’ve been a far walk, it only took me about ten minutes to find the cemetery.

The clearly marked gate to the Jewish Cemetery

The gated entrance was clearly marked, “Jewish Cemetery” so I knew I was in the right place. The gate appeared locked with a padlock but there was a man on the other side who told me to just open it up myself but to be sure to not let his dog run out (the key was in the padlock). Aside from that man I didn’t see anyone else in the cemetery so it was just me and the tombstones, at least at first.

The oldest grave that is clearly marked

I wandered around trying to make out whatever I could which was challenging because of the poor condition of some of the inscriptions on the tombs as well as the Hebrew which wasn’t always the modern, newspaper text I’m more used to reading. However, after about five minutes of going it alone I was joined by an older man and his young son who came out to greet me. The man’s name was Raju and he was the caretaker of the premises. He took me around to several areas of the cemetery pointing out various tombs and explaining a bit about each one. He pointed out the oldest grave as well as the most recent. He showed me where a father and son were buried next to each other and also where a fallen Lieutenant in the British India Army was buried during WWII. Overall, the cemetery was very well preserved and there was no visible sign of any intentional destruction. The members of the community are truly resting in peace.

Tombstone of a fallen WWII soldier

He told me that his parents and grandparents knew many people in Penang’s Jewish community and that he maintains the grounds in honor of his family’s relationship and for no real compensation (although he accepts small, individual donations from visitors). Over the years he’s met many of the deceased’s family members who come from the UK or other countries to visit the graves and he actually gathers many clues about the people buried there from the families themselves even if he or his family never knew all of the individuals personally. He said there are very few Jews still in Penang, if any at all. The residents of the streets surrounding the cemetery continue to reflect Malaysia’s current mix of cultures: Malays, Chinese and Indians but there are no longer Jews on what was once Jalan Yahudi.

View my photos from the Jewish Cemetery in Penang.

From reading a bit about Malaysia’s Jewish Community and the Jewish Cemetery on Wikipedia, I’ve discovered that many of the descendants of the community are actually in New York!

The full moon over the Batu Caves on Thaipusam

In my three weeks of travel now that Tamar has returned to the US I planned to visit Malaysia, Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City. When I told my Malaysian friend, Vannitha, that I was in the process of making plans she told me about the Hindu Thaipusam Festival that was to happen in and around Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, the weekend of February 8th this year. She described it as an “unforgettable experience” and “a very out of this world sort of thing”. That certainly sounded interesting enough for me so I planned to arrive on February 7, the day before.

Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrating the deity, Murugan, and is marked largely by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. Malaysian Tamils created the shrines at the Batu Caves just 13km north of Kuala Lumpur in the late 19th century and, although Thaipusam is celebrated in many states in Malaysia, these caves are the primary location for the festival in the country. Devotees take part in a procession originating in Kuala Lumpur and ending up in the Batu Caves. They shave their heads and carry out acts of kavadi, or burdens, ranging from carrying a pot of milk to piercing of the body flesh, tongue and cheeks with metal hooks or skewers.

As soon as I landed, Vannitha told me that Thaipusam had already started that day and she suggested that we take a short nap and then go directly to the Batu Caves that night. This would be to both avoid the hot sun and also to observe the highest procession traffic before dawn the following day. We set out on our own little pilgrimage around 10pm from the train station in Kuala Lumpur where we found ourselves already among several hundred people crammed into the train’s cars. We then got off a few stops later to switch trains and the crowds gathered at this junction were even larger than before. We squeezed into the very end of the last train car where some young dudes were smokin’ weed (not officially part of the Thaipusam ritual) but made it to the Batu Caves rather quickly.

Once at the caves we joined the thousands of worshipers and other tourists who came out for the festival that night. Over a million people were expected to visit the Batu Caves over this holiday weekend and I felt like I had seen or felt all of them around me. Just walking to the caves was a fascinating and time consuming process. We witnessed all sorts of worshipers bearing kavadi and dancing in a trance-like state with musicians playing all around. We were nearly run over several time by approaching processions of people and the only thing we could do was to just keep on moving forward towards the caves.

272 steps up to the entrance of the Batu Caves

Before climbing to the top of the 272 steps we got a bite to eat first around 3am. I tried my first roti canai which is a thin doughy bread and is known for being both delicious and fattening. We dipped this into some sauces and we were fueled up and ready to go.

We started to climb the steps at at about 4am but the traffic flowed constantly up and down the steps at every hour throughout the night. The beginning of the ascent was slow and it reminded me of being on a roller coaster as it just begins to pull out of the boarding station to make its way up the first incline. We were surrounded on all sides and so it really was like being locked in one position and being forced to move in only one direction. The climb itself proceeded at a moderate pace and so it wasn’t too tiring but I was focused on always looking at the step in front of me and only occasionally did I turn around to see the view behind me.

From the top of the steps the view was spectacular and there was a feeling of accomplishment as an individual and also as part of a group. Of course, you couldn’t really stand at the top of the steps for long because hundreds of people were still making their way up the stairs by the second and needed to land somewhere too. We then spent the next hour or so wandering through the caves, resting and enjoying the cool breeze since the top of the cave is open and air flows freely.

The view from inside of a canopy while descending the stairs

The way down was also exciting and I went so slowly, enjoying the view and taking photos that, at one point, I was overtaken by one of the canopies and I found myself actually underneath it! That was strange and exciting. After we reached the bottom I had so much energy I felt like I could do it all over again but, this time, in the heat of broad daylight…NOT! But I did feel a sense of accomplishment even if it was to climb up the steps carrying only my Nikon D40 as my kavadi. While some of the people around me were in a trance, helping them to endure the pain, I myself was in a trance-like state commonly referred to as “sleepwalking”. I was so tired by about 5am that it was painful to think about the long journey home: walking through the crowds, waiting in line to buy train tickets, waiting for train #1 to arrive, taking the train, buying the next ticket, waiting for and taking train #2, the taxi to Vannitha’s car, driving to her home, riding the elevator…zzzzzzzzzz.

It took both of us a good few days to get back on a regular sleep schedule but when folks asked me, “What do you think so far of Malaysia?”, boy did I have a story to tell. For me it really was a mind-blowing experience to be part of something so huge that night. For Vannitha, she likes to refer to it as a “once in a lifetime experience”, meaning, she really doesn’t see herself doing that again. So, that was my first night in a new country and it was certainly a sign of all of the great things that were to follow.

Kapitan Keling Mosque

I went to the Kapitan Keling Mosque yesterday and spent quite a long time there. After getting a nice tour of the mosque I sat with my guide in his air conditioned office along with two of his friends, one visiting from Egypt and the other from Mexico. The three of them explained many aspects of Islam to me. It was interesting to hear about Islam from the perspective of Muslims in Asia (in this case, Tamil) but also to know that, at least within the Sunni Muslim Community, as represented by these particular men, there seemed to be complete agreement and unity regarding the religion and how to practice it.

I’ve studied about Islam in the past and it was nice to see that some of the things they talked about were familiar to me, for example, the five pillars of Islam. In discussing these I was particularly moved when they talked about the need to give to charity. They said that they have no need for personal wealth and that their primary concern is having no want for “food and drink for themselves, their families and their neighbor”. Instead of throwing out food or an older piece of clothing it is the duty of a Muslim to give it to a poor person to “help them and to lift them up to your level of living.”

Prayer inside the Kapitan Keling Mosque

They talked about going on the Haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, which is a duty of all able-bodied Muslims at least once in his lifetime. They said that this certainly requires financial means but mostly for the plane ticket as it’s very possible that people will help you there once you get to Saudi Arabia. Being perhaps younger than myself, they said that they have so far not had a chance to make the Haj and that if they ever did come into money they would use it to make the pilgrimage but not for personal riches or material items. They also said that a Muslim shouldn’t go on the Haj three or four times even if he has the means because what he should do instead is help his friend financially so that he may go at least once.

However, not all of their explanations were as easy for me to understand or to identify with. I found myself sitting very patiently through lengthy justifications, defensive in tone, that were aimed at countering Western media assertions that women’s rights are violated within Muslim communities. They explained that women and men are by nature (more importantly, by Allah and established in the Qur’an) not equal although they went on to say that this is not because of any lack of love for women. On the contrary, they described women as being “sweet like candy and therefore desirable and loved” and completed the analogy by saying that you must bottle up sweet things very tightly so as to keep out the ants that would otherwise enter the bottle, i.e. other men. Keeping women from working and having their own careers outside of the home is important to them because, “It is a man’s duty to work to provide food for the whole family and he should not need his wife to earn income in order for the family to survive.” They also pointed out that it is a man’s duty to help his wife in the home for she is not merely his maid, “If your wife is cooking then you should be doing the dishes.” The whole male role vs. female role conversation went on a little too long for my taste but I didn’t see the need to rush it since I was enjoying the air conditioning at the hottest time of the day.

Whether these men advocated specific gender roles within the family or giving alms to the poor, they were driven by one single goal and that was to follow the Qur’an and the word of Allah in everything they do in life. They explained that if you go to war Allah says that you should kill only the commanders of your enemy and never their women, children or innocent people you may pass on the way to battle. They said that that some Muslims violate these rules in the name of Allah but that these people are misguided and are not living according to what they believe to be the true path of righteousness.

I’m glad that I not only went to see such a beautiful structure as the Kapitan Keling Mosque but that I also got to chat at length with members of the local and extended community there. As I was leaving they offered me some free literature about Islam from their library. Out of curiosity, I chose to take a copy of the “Israel and the Arabs: Conflict or Conciliation” and I received a “The True Religion of God” booklet as a bonus. They asked me if I would like to leave my email to keep in contact should I have any more questions about Islam. When I politely declined and thanked them for their time they immediately said, “We apologize if we have offended you in any way by what we have said.” I responded by telling them that they should never apologize for being open and honest with a stranger and a guest.

Malaysia is home to many cultures and religions and you can read about the all-nighter I pulled for the Hindu Thaipusam Festival as well as my visit to Penang’s Jewish Cemetery where one can view the remains of this dwindling community that has all but vanished.