Snake Temple

About

The Snake Temple, known in Chinese as Shé Miào and bearing the loftier title Temple of the Azure Clouds, stands in Bayan Lepas on the Malaysian island of Penang. The sanctuary is best known across Southeast Asia for the snakes that have made their home in its smoky inner halls, regarded by devotees as the reincarnated disciples of the deified Buddhist monk Chor Soo Kong, to whom the temple is consecrated.

Chor Soo Kong, also called Master Qingshui, was a monk of the Song dynasty in southern China revered for his works of healing and for the gentle care he extended to creatures, including the snakes who took refuge in his hermitage. The temple was raised in 1805 by the Chinese community of Penang to honour his memory, and tradition relates that once the building was completed, pit vipers appeared of their own accord and have remained ever since.

Pilgrims travel from across the Straits, from Singapore, Taiwan and southern China, to offer prayers and incense here, especially on the sixth day of the first lunar month, the saint's birthday. The halls are filled with the perfume of joss sticks and the quiet presence of the resident vipers coiled upon the altars and tree boughs.

The snakes are believed by tradition to be rendered docile by the sacred smoke, although for visitor safety they have been devenomed while keeping their fangs intact. Within the precinct stand two ancient brick wells known as the Dragon Eye Wells and two brass bells, and a small breeding centre established in 2005 helps to sustain the community of serpents.

Significance

The Snake Temple is a vivid emblem of the Chinese-Malaysian folk Buddhist tradition, in which the worship of an enlightened ancestor monk is interwoven with reverence for living creatures held sacred to his memory. For more than two centuries it has united Penang's diasporic Chinese community in the veneration of Chor Soo Kong, and it remains a destination of pilgrimage and contemplation for devotees from across the wider region.