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Published: October 21st 2008
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Excited to be back in Asia. Exiting the plane, a wall of humidity hits me. After the 73km taxi ride into the central business area (KLCC), I stay one night at any guesthouse. In the middle of the night, it all comes back to me. Bed bugs. How could I forget? ‘
In the morning, I’ll head straight to China Town.’ Pet Shops can be confronting in Asia. Turtles, snakes, parrots, galagos and baby rhesus monkeys, are all for sale here. Along with hundreds of birds kept in small cages. At
another pet store, around the corner, my suggestion of giving water to the three giant rabbits panting in a tiny cage is obliged. And after pointing to a dead guinea pig; the shop assistant grabs it, wraps it in a newspaper, and throws it in the bin; signalling to me that the sun is too hot at the front of the shop. He smiles and gestures to shake my hand; the same sweaty hand that he’d grabbed the corpse with. Hesitating, then quickly realising my objections are to the conditions of the animals and not him, I shake his hand then immediately depart to find somewhere to wash mine.
At The Chinese Assembly Hall, an event called the
Thousand Offerings is happening.
Hosted by Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundup, the abbot of Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Arriving late and only catching the last few hours of the evening, I make an audio recording of the abbot and the monks chanting. The ceremony is called
Jangwa Puja - a Tibetan Buddhist prayer for the deceased.
(more info:
http://www.fpmtmba.org.hk/dod/dodpg3_3_0105.htm)
Jangwa Puja is popular with the Chinese Buddhist community in Kuala Lumpur. At the end of the chanting and prayers, the names of the departed are written down on large sheets of paper and then burnt. As the only foreigner here, I get some odd looks; perhaps also because my beard gives the impression that I’m a muslim.
Two years earlier, at The Chinese Assembly Hall, a ceremony called the
‘Million Light Offering’ was held
. Also presided over by Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundup. There was also an exhibition of ancient sacred Buddhist relics, the
Maitreya Relics Tour, where objects called ringsels were on display. Maitreya, in Buddhist tradition, is considered the future Buddha. Pearl-like crystals are found in the ashes after a monk's body is cremated. The most prized of
these relics are the pieces of bone, alleged to be from the historical Buddha - Gautama. The organisers were collecting donations to construct a building in India, designed to last 1,000 years.
After paying my respects to the deceased, I leave the Chinese Assembly Hall with a sense of optimism, despite the heavy torrential rain, and seek shelter at the
Chan Clan House across the road
; where I'd participated in my first
ceremony for the dead. Which was nine hours long.
Last time I was in Kuala Lumpur, I’d stumbled across the
Chan Clan House while wandering around China Town. Today, there is a tea shop here and I'm offered organic jasmine tea while waiting for the rain to subdue. Mentioning to my friendly host, about wanting to visit Kota Bharu, he replies “
it's very Islamic, there are no cinemas there, nothing to do and the pace is very slow." Perfect.
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