Cheng Hoon Teng Temple

This temple is of important historical value, representing the oldest of its kind in Malaysia. Cheng Hoong Teng Temple was built around 1645 and has long been dedicated by the Goddess of Mercy - Kwan Yin. It was resorted in 2003 and recognised by UNESCO for this endeavour.

The temple is small and can be manageably visited in 15-20 minutes. The inside grounds are quite typical of Chinese Buddism, Confucianism and Taoism temples found throughout Asia. It us reminded quite a bit of our many Tin Hau temples in Hong Kong. Expected arrangement and decor was found throughout the temple - alters, dragon and tiger murals, miniatures above the doors, moon-shaped entry, guardian lions, amongst others. What as unique has the heavy usage of wooden door and panels, indicative of Malay style architecture. That is something we enjoy about temple visits in this part of SE Asia and you can see much evidence of this architecture style here.

Cheng Hoong Teng Temple is located just off Jonker Street on Jalan Tukang Emas. Interestingly it is located very near to the Hindu temple of Sri Poyatha Moorthi Temple and Kampung Kling Mosque. It is nice to see this sort of religious harmony coexisting together. We were informed after our visit that the street is actually called 'Harmony Street' as well. How appropriate!

As such, this area, reminds us, on a much smaller scale, of Singapore's South Bridge Road in Chinatown where you can find Jamae Mosque, Sri Marimman Temple and the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple all in close proximity to each other.

Overall, we found this to be a decent overall temple to visit and particularly of interest due to its long standing history and its proximity to the city center area of Malacca, meaning that little effort is required to find and visit the Cheng Hoong Teng Temple.