A Visit To Dong Zen Temple 2008 - #1

The huge lantern is one of the highlight this year. Every year there are new highlights.

Almost every year I will try to make a trip to Jenjarom, a town on the way to Banting. There is sited the famous FGS Dong Zen Temple which has a floral and lantern festival celebration every year which offered many photo opportunities. FGS stands for Fo Guang Shan literally translated as Buddha’s Light Mountain which had its headquarter in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Dong Zen on the other hand is an unusual English name. If adopted from Mandarin, it should be Dong Chan Si in its Romanized form. If translated, it should be Eastern Zen Temple. For some reason, half of the Mandarin Romanized and half of translated version were used resulting in Dong Zen Temple.

Source: FGS Dong Zen Temple.

This is the map showing how to get to Dong Zen Temple. There are still a few days left to catch the festival.

Source: FGS Dong Zen Temple.


This is the layout of the temple complex and the various activities within its compound.

This monk is pointing the way to enlightenment.

I did not pick an auspicious day to visit the temple. On the fifth day of Chinese New Year, 11 January, I decided to by myself as taking photos is an activity best done alone. As my car came to the head of the traffic light to turn to the road to Banting, I was stopped by a policeman. There were a couple of cars ahead of me. After a few minutes of waiting, I got out of the car to find what was going on and was dismayed to find that the “Tour De Langkawi” cyclists would be passing through this route. After waiting several minutes, and a massive jam building up, all the motorists were cursing because there were no cyclists in sight and if allowed to move, the cars would have been long gone from from this spot. Yet the policeman persisted in preventing anyone from going forward. Reasoning that even when the cyclist came, it will take a very long time to clear before the road would be made accessible for traveling, I squeezed my car out and took an alternative route.

One of the reason I visited every year is because of the large numbers and types of flowers on displays. This year is no exception.

It has been a long time since I came across Chinese playdough that are used to make various cartoon characters. You can either buy them outright or pay RM2.00 for a spin hoping to get the more expensive items.

A bag of fishes and tools of the trade.

Bushes shaped into the twelve animals of the Animal Years or also known as Chinese Zodiacs though I don't really like that term. See the visitors enjoying the flowers in the background.

These monks are sharing a joke with the stall owners. Always pleases me to see happy monks instead of serious ones.


You can buy wishes on which to hang on the branches of low wishing trees or buy a long red cloth tied to a string and tried to throw it up a tall wishing tree. Then pray to hope your wishes will come true for the year.

Pretty girl snapping wishes. She has one - to take a great shot. I also have one to capture her doing it. My wish came true.

This tree is laden with the wishes of patrons - a great burden to bear.

Red wishes swaying in the breeze. By the fifteen day, the tree may be more red than green.

I visited the koi pond every year.

But the fishes did not recognize me. Story of my life.

Another highlights of this year are miniature famous places of Buddhist worships in India. These are two fine examples.

This old sage with dreamy eyes looked at me and asked if I have found my way. I said I'm still as lost as ever. He said "stop looking". I smiled and replied that no disrespect but I've no intention to. I'm sure if he could lift his staff, he would brought it down on my blockhead.

To be continued...