Wat Buppharam ( th, วัดบุปผาราม; ) (also called as the Buppharam Buddhist Temple) is a Thai temple in

Pulau Tikus Pulau Tikus is a northwestern suburb of George Town in Penang, Malaysia. Situated between the city centre and Tanjung Tokong, this upper class suburb was named after a rock just off the coast of Penang Island. It is home to small minorities of ...

suburb of George Town,

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. Situated at Jalan Perak, the temple is the home to a renowned statue of Buddha, the "Lifting Buddha". The temple became a focal point for the annual Siamese

Songkran Songkran is a term derived from the Sanskrit word, ' (or, more specifically, ') and used to refer to the traditional New Year celebrated in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, parts of northeast India, parts of Vietnam and ...

and

Loi Krathong Loy Krathong ( th, ลอยกระทง, , ) is a Thai festival celebrated annually throughout Thailand and in nearby countries with significant South Western Tai cultures (Laos, Shan, Mon, Tanintharyi, Kelantan, Kedah, and Xishuangbanna) ...

festivals within the city suburb and for the city yearly Buddha Day procession as well the Jathukarm-Ramathep-

Ganesha Ganesha ( sa, गणेश, ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in Ganapatya sect. His image is found throughout India. Hindu d ...

blessing ceremonies.

History

The temple was built during the Japanese occupation of

British Malaya The term "British Malaya" (; ms, Tanah Melayu British) loosely describes a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore that were brought under British hegemony or control between the late 18th and the mid-20th century. U ...

in 1942 by Phra Phothan Srikheaw, a

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

monk who became the temple's first

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

Features

The temple is renowned for a century-old

Buddha statue Much Buddhist art uses depictions of the historical Buddha, Gautama Buddha, which are known as Buddharūpa (literally, "Form of the Awakened One") in Sanskrit and Pali. These may be statues or other images such as paintings. The main figure in ...

nicknamed the "Lifting Buddha". Urban legend has it that the statue contains the ability to predict whether a devotee's wishes can be fulfilled. If the statue can be lifted the first time the devotee concentrates on his or her wishes, and subsequently becomes too heavy to lift the second time, then the devotee's wish is indeed attainable. Although founded as a Theravāda Buddhist temple with the layout of Thai tradition, the temple are decorated with various mythical religious creatures of

Nāga The Nagas (IAST: ''nāga''; Devanāgarī: नाग) are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. ...

s with the mixture of

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

deities such as the statue of

which is placed at the main entrance while in the left located a shrine specifically for

Guan Yin Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She w ...

. On the far side leading to the burial grounds, there is a small shrine to

Tudigong Tudigong ( "Lord of the Soil and the Ground") or Tudishen ( "God of the Soil and the Ground"), also known simply as Tudi ( "Soil-Ground") is a tutelary deity of a locality and the human communities who inhabit it in Chinese folk religion and Tao ...

(Goddess of Land). In spite of the temple complex modest size, it has arguably one of the largest

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...

es in the state. File:Wat Buppharam, Pulau Tikus, George Town, Penang (2).jpg, The temple as seen from its second entrance at Jalan Perak.

References

{{Malaysian historical architectures and sites Religious buildings and structures completed in 1942 Chinese-Malaysian culture Indian-Malaysian culture Buddhist temples in Malaysia Religious buildings and structures in Penang Tourist attractions in George Town, Penang Ganesha temples Guanyin temples Overseas Thai Buddhist temples Thai Theravada Buddhist temples and monasteries 20th-century Buddhist temples 1942 establishments in the Japanese colonial empire