January 10 - Wat Chayamangkalaram

 And last, but not least, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.  This is directly across the street from the Burmese temple and is a typical Thai temple.  Like all areas of the world people in Asia moved around a lot and wherever they went they brought their own religious practices with them.  That is why you see so many different styles of temples in Malaysia.  

As all the other temple - these are compounds within city limits.  You can't avoid getting city buildings in most of your photos.

Here the Buddha has four arms.  He is supposed to have a thousand arms so that he could help more people.

The Reclining Buddha.  I had to take the photo at an angle to get it all in.

Below is a study of hand positions for the Buddha.  I started taking photos of different hand positions, until I realized that, indeed, all of the Buddhas lines around two sides of the temple purposefully had different hand gestures.  Again, the face is all from the same mold.  Don't feel bad if you find it boring - just skip all the photos below.

January 10 - Dhammikarma Burmese Buddhist Temple

 Of-course we have not seen enough temples yet.  Especially ones with Burmese architectural influences.  

The lions look different - more colorful - or maybe its a dragon!

I am not sure if these guys are offering a bell to Buddha - but if so that is considered a very significant offering.

A stupa

The characters in the murals wear Burmese clothing.

The Burmese Buddhas are typically very serene looking.

The legendary Garuda or the mythical king of the birds.

A pagoda

You can put your offerings into the different categories, depending on what you are praying for.

As in most temples, the buddha's are from the same mold.  These look very feminine.

I am intrigued by the hand gestures.

January 10 - The Blue Mansion

 Tuesday, our last full tourist day in Malaysia, we saw a mansion and two temples.  This is just about the Blue Mansion and some interesting cloud formations.

These were taken on Monday night.  Most of the time the skies in the evening have been boring.  But sometimes they can be pretty spectacular.

The Blue Mansion or the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, is a rags to riches story.  Cheong Fatt Tze was from the Hakka region of China as are a lot of the Chinese in Southeast Asia.  The Hakka region was in dire straits in the late 1800's.  Gheong's family was very poor, and he had to leave at age 16 to make his way in Indonesia.  There he met a rich merchant trader and worked his way from being the water boy to running the company, marrying the bosses daughter along the way.  He became very rich and had homes and wives in many countries.  The Blue Mansion was his favorite home and was where his favorite wife - wife No. 7 (and two other wives) lived.  Cheong became very well known in the political arena and held many high posts.  The house was built on Feng Shui principals to bring the owner harmony and success.

A Chinese bed.

These are used all over Asia - when a women gets an elaborate hair style she wants to keep it intact for more than a couple of hours.  So she rested her neck on this to keep her hair from touching anything.  I get enough sore necks just sleeping on strange pillows - I can't imagine how painful this must have been.

Accordions were know all over the world!