Like Day and Night: “My Malaysia” Photo Series (7)

“The Way is not in the sky; the Way is in the heart.” (Gautama Buddha)

Dhammikarama Burmese Temple. Penang, 8 February 2019

This is one of the photographs taken in Malaysia that I love most. I don't understand well why, perhaps for a sense of serenity that I feel in looking at it, I would say that it is really a Buddhist photo.

I really like the colors, the position of the monk, the rich and dynamic decorations of the statues and the palace that contrast with the simplicity of man's clothes.

He knew that I was photographing him, I was in front of him and I had been in the temple for an hour, his was only shyness. In fact, after that photo, he tried to run away smiling, but at that point I went to ask him for a portrait; it's not my habit to photograph men, but he really had a beautiful face, sunny and smiling.

Penang, 8 February 2019

It's certainly not a Malaysian face.

Let's take a step back.

This photograph was taken last year, but the first time I entered this temple was the previous year, in 2017.

We are in Penang, in the Pulau Tikus suburb of the heart of the city, George Town, precisely in Jalan Burma (Burma Road). In fact, this is the famous Dhammikarama Burmese Temple, the ancient and only Burmese temple in the state.

This Buddhist temple has an interesting history, a history of women.

The Burmese community in Penang dates back to 1800, right in Pulau Tikus, and the first construction of the temple is given on 1 August 1803, with the small temple called “Nandy Moloh Temple”, in the land donated by Nyonya Betong (the terms Baba-Nyonya, Peranakan, are used for the descendants of the first Chinese immigrants settled in the British colonies in Malacca, Penang and Singapore: Nyonya derives from the Portuguese donha, “lady”, and designates women) in a negotiation with George Layton.

The temple was run by four women, Nyonya Betong, Nyonya Meerut, Nyonya Koloh and Nyonya Bulan. In 1830, the Siamese and Burmese community had 648 people out of 40,000 in total. Then the community began to grow and, appealing to Queen Victoria, they obtained a wider ground to extend the temple size as well for the burial grounds of the elders.

It consists of the Kyaung (the monastery), prayer rooms with many Buddha statues, a large garden with fountains and statues of animals, Garuda, Chimeras and elephants, the monks' rooms, the library and a large golden stupa that stands in the sky. All with the classic and rich in gold Burmese style decorations.

Crossing the road, right in front of the entrance to this temple, there is Wat Chayamangkalaram, the Thai Buddhist temple.

I still remember the day when, passing by the nearby road with my friends' car, I saw Jalan Burma was completely crowded with people and ceremonial chariots. I didn't know what was going on but I asked to let me down from the car.

I entered for the first time; it was full of monks, so I asked what was being celebrated and they told me that the whole Burmese community had arrived in Penang for the funeral ceremony in honor of Ven. Baddanta Panna Vamsa (Spiritual Director Sasana Moli in Penang).

It was also difficult to move for how many people there were. Many women had thanaka, the traditional Burmese make-up.

Penang, 3 December  2017

For me it was, sincerely, the first time, I had never met any Burmese in my life, if not the Rohingya (and being there that day was also quite emotionally complicated). I couldn't stay long and tried to take as many photographs as possible, without knowing that the following year I would have lived there for almost two years in that city.

Penang was my home, and on the weekend, free from work at the university, I took the bus and came to George Town to photograph. I went back to this temple three times, and it was like day and night. Completely another atmosphere during normal days.

I was with the monks, I photographed them, we talked and in the end they got used to me.

It made me smile when I saw one of the older monks recite prayers on the tablet, an image that reminded me of Steve McCurry's most famous of the Buddhist monk who drank Coca Cola in Bodh Gaya, India, in 2000: as McCurry wrote, that photograph made him understand that an era was over.

Penang, 8 February 2019

Steve McCurry, “Young Buddhist monk” Bodh Gaya, India, 2000

Walking through the garden I met the women and nuns who cleaned the lawn and swept the street, the dormitory, and this very handsome monk on the threshold of the front door.

Penang, 8 February 2019

 

Like a membrane to a world completely unknown to me, with a double meaning, both as regards the Burmese people and literally for what happened behind that building.

In fact, it was helping a woman to carry a heavy bag of garbage to the garbage buckets in the back that I discovered the most unexpected part of the day, because hidden by the buildings that welcome visitors in front, at the edge of the wall of the temple, there was a field of Sepak Takraw, the most famous sport of Southeast Asia (“tendang” in Indonesia and Malaysia, “takraw” in Thailand, “Ka-taw” in Lao and “Sipa” in the Philippines), of which I am an avid fan: a sort of volleyball where you can hit the ball, made up of rattan weaves, only with feet and head. A very difficult sport to practice but exciting to observe with the plastic poses of the players intent on splits and flying kicks.

I don't know if they were resting monks or simple temple helpers but they were having a lot of fun, and I with them.

While a tattooed, and obviously drunk, man was singing a romantic song in front of my camera.

Penang, 8 February 2019

All this reminded me of Opera China, where the most interesting part was in the back, in its parallel world.

The same feeling: in front of the Chimera statues, the Buddhas with blessed faces, the monks absorbed in deep thoughts among the avenues of the temple, and behind, hidden, the fury of the players and the dry sound of the ball hit with force and the spatter sweat.

 

Penang, 8 February 2019

Penang, 7 September 2019

In the end, if I was able to live this experience it's thanks to the cultural richness  and the variety of peoples that animate this land.

Malaysia is also this, for me.

Dhammikarama Burmese Temple. Penang, 8 February 2019

 

Steve McCurry si racconta a Gianni Riotta: “Il mondo di Steve McCurry” (Mondadori, 2016)

Sepak Takraw:

Italian version