Leaving Kuan Yin Tong, I was pleasantly surprised to find another cave temple a stone throw away. Walking across an ugly metal bridge, I entered the compound of yet another Buddhist cave temple , the Da Seng Ngan Temple, said to be over a century year old. The temple compound was well kept; clean, beautifully decorated with flower shrubs and rows and rows of standing Buddha statues. The tallest, 28 ft, stands proudly against Bukit Rapat as a backdrop.During the days before the advent of Internet, I remember reading in the local daily that an old abandoned Chinese temple had been discovered in Ipoh. I suspect this is the temple. Those days, there was this popular American TV series hosted by StarTrek star, the late Leornard Nimoy, In Search of. Da Seng Ngan would not make it to the series, if you'd ask me. The temple wasn't lost yet at that time. It was in 1974 when a flash flood struck and submerged the temple with mud. It laid abandoned for over 30 years, forgotten later may be, only to be rediscovered in 2006. Excavation work revealed century-old artefacts such as copper statues, urns and ceramics. I suppose then if there were huge statues that stand outside the temple, it would not be easily forgotten. Just like the once majestic Bamiyan Buddhas that remind the world that Buddhism once flourished in Afghanistan. 2
Outside Da Seng Ngan...
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