Johor Bahru Old Chinese Temple

The Johor Old Chinese Temple was built in the 1870s and its significance is structural rather than architectural: it houses five deities, one from each of the Chinese dialect groups that settled Johor - Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka and Hainanese - under one roof, at a time when those groups elsewhere in Malaya were organised separately and often in open conflict. The arrangement was a deliberate act of cooperation tied to the kangchu system under which Chinese planters opened Johor's river valleys. Every year around the twenty-first day of the first lunar month the five deities are carried out for the Chingay parade, a procession through the city over several nights that draws very large crowds, with the statues escorted by clan associations. The Chinese Heritage Museum next door explains all of it.

History

The temple dates from between 1870 and 1880, when Sultan Abu Bakar, on warm terms with the local Chinese, encouraged them to build places of worship and gave them land (Wikipedia, Johor Bahru Old Chinese Temple).

What to look for

• Five deities under one roof - one from each Chinese dialect group in Johor.
• An 1870s temple - small, dark and still in daily use on Jalan Trus.
• The Chingay parade - the February procession of the deities through the city.
• The heritage museum next door - the kangchu system and the clan history.

When to go

All year; the Chingay in February for the procession. An hour.

Things to know

The temple is small and takes twenty minutes; the museum next door does the explaining. During Chingay the surrounding streets close and crowds are enormous.

Nearby

The heritage district and Jalan Tan Hiok Nee are a short walk.

Key facts