100+ years old San Bao Dong Cave Temple, Perak, Malaysia, Heritage reliogious site
 
Ling Xian Yan, Ipoh is just conveniently located at the Gurung Rapat area and it is just beside to the main road (Jalan Gopeng). The strategic location as the first among the three Cave temple and colorful traditional Chinese temple design makes it having the most crowd. Unlike the San Bao Dong Buddhist and Nan Tian Dong Taoist cave Temples which each has their own long history; in comparison, creation of this temple was rather "new" and more importantly, it was an individual effort. According to an introductory marble stone which illustrated its history; the project was started by an immigrant from Guangdong Province, China named Loh Chee Meng 1913~1995. A more remarkable fact is, he only began construction (inspired by a dream) when he was 57 years old which means officially, it was built in 1967. Originally, the cave has only a Chinese folk religion image of Tua Pek Gong (Tai Pak Gong in Cantonese) statue where its history cannot be traced. As a retiree specialized in Chinese construction and design, it still took Mr. Loh entire life of his retirement of 28 years to build this temple in phases.

San baotong Buddhist Cave Temple, Ipoh, Peark, Malaysia San baotong Buddhist Cave Temple, Ipoh, Peark, Malaysia
For this fact only, you have to admire his determine dedication and hardwork. As information relating to this cave temple is weak on th web, I am trying to create an introduction which serves to show my respect, that is all.


I guess the relative late development of the Ling Xian Yan must have been well studied in how NOT to challenge the likes of Nan Tian Dong and San Bao Dong and still established its own temple identity. Basically, the creator has thoughtfully using all the well known Chinese legends and characters and mix with traditional Chinese temple design. In here, you will find a mixture of Mahayaha and Theravada Buddhism practices. I guess the idea is to provide one single solution to all. The only thing that is missing is the temple's natural cave structure which actually limits the progress internally. So, you can say most of the temple's highlights are located its external compound The mix of the "everything" is currently the temple's attraction and indeed this is one happy joyous playground for a good family outings, esp. kids will love it. For the photographers, this Cave temple may present an extremely colorful play to burn a few rolls, esp. during a hot, sunny afternoon...
 

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Credit: To all the good people who have contributed their own experience, resources or those who are kind enough in granting us the permission to use their images that appeared on this site. Note: Certain content and images appeared on this site were taken by using a Canon PowerShot Pro-1 digital camera. Some materials appeared on this site were scanned from some leaflets, brochures or publications published by Wat Pak Nam and/or contribution from surfers who claimed originality of their work for educational purposes. The creator of the site will not be responsible for any discrepancies that may arise from such dispute except rectifying