Nine Emperor Gods

So last night was the finale of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival at the Ampang temple. The Toaist event is nine days long, and celebrates the return to earth of nine emperor spirits that are worshiped as one deity, Mazu, the "Taoist goddess of the sea and queen of heaven who represents health, wealth and prosperity" (courtesy of Wikipedia). Jose and I found our way to the temple with relative ease, thanks to Google Earth and some reassuring yellow flags along the way. It was quite the scene, and as far as I can tell, we were about the only caucasians there. Heck yes, I'm unique...ish. We arrived at around 8pm, almost at the end of the fire walking. While those performers walking across the coals are dressed uniformely in white, they are not monks -- any one can participate, though it requires a week of fasting first. The gate surrounding the main square was completely lined with spectators, and large cameras shot blindly above the heads of hundreds. Surrounding the temple were stalls, with an almost carnival-ish atmosphere (many thanks to wikipedia again for making the comparison first). There were food stalls everywhere, selling both vegetarian and meat dishes, and there was no shortage to sweet goods like rice paste in crushed peanuts.
After the performers completed the walk (some carrying large cameras, one carrying a child), the gates were removed, and people began to move in towards to fire to pray. José and I felt that "participant observation" was the best tactic, and followed suit. Needless to say, I got some burns, and my clothes from yesterday are lying, smokey in my room. All in all, the event was very cool, and I'd say José and I got more smiles than laughs (and trust me, I get a lot
of laughs here, just for being). So here are some of my pictures from the night - I took about 300 :S, so these are just a few that stand out (tsk tsk, andrew... subtly implying that many stand out. When will you learn?)