Travel Snapshot – Tian Hou Temple, Kuala Lumpur At Night

I was there on the 2nd October 2009 night hoping to see some lantern decorations for this year’s celebration of Chinese’ Mid-Autumn Festival. Unfortunately I was so disappointed that nothing was on display, though the celebration is only one day away! And less than ten visitors were there including me. No luck though, I took some night scene photos of Tian Hou Temple with my D60 and Nikkor 35mm f1.8 lens. All photos were shot hand held. 🙂

Tian Hou Temple (天后宫) was built in 1989 by the local Hainanese community in Kuala Lumpur and is dedicated to Goddess Tian Hou (The Heavenly Mother). It is located on a 1.67 acres (6,760 m²) land on top of Robson Heights in KL. Every year on the lunar calender’s 15th of August (it drops on the 3rd October this year), TianHou Temple will be organising various activities to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival, such as the lantern design competition, lantern quiz, dragon dancing, lantern decorations, foods carnival and many more. I’ve been here before on the festival but do not expect it is totally unprepared on the day before. 🙁

I’m still having my 35mm prime lens fixed on my D60 while 18-55mm zoom lens was left at home. So, I have to do more moving around to capture the whole scene, but it was still not quite wide enough…

What a joke! I couldn’t see any lantern being hung up but I could see a group of people were learning Tai-Chi swording lesson on the prayer square at roof top.

A shot of the temple roof architecture with ancient chinese design. Below are some photos taken around the main temple pillars which were carved with patterns of dragons…

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Five. I love the carved texture of these pillars under the ambient lighting…. Only a pair of shoes was kept outside of the temple, or only one person was inside…

UPDATED: Click HERE to view original High Resolution file of the above photos via Flickr.

There is a Guan Yin statue besides the entrance/exit point. Attractive view at night. Believers squad down in front of Guan Yin to pray and seek for holy water for good luck.

Well, not much to see and not much to say about it. No lanterns spotted. My hopes will go on…. Have you shot any lantern photos at night by now? – Travel Feeder.

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.