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3941 - Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia


This card depicts a traditional village house. It is built on stilts to avoid flooding during the rainy season. 

Bayan Lepas is a suburb of George Town and is located at the southern tip of Penang Island, 15 km south of the city centre. 

Bayan Lepas is home to the Snake Temple 蛇庙, or the Temple of the Azure Clouds. It is a Chinese temple well-known for being a refuge of resident snakes, said to be reincarnated disciples of the deified Buddhist monk Master Qingshui 清水祖師, to whom the temple is dedicated. On the six day of the first lunar month, devotees, some as far away as Singapore, Taiwan, and China, come to pray in the temple. 

Inside the temple, it is filled with smoke of burning incense and a variety of pit vipers. The vipers are believed to be rendered harmless by the sacred smoke, but as a safety precaution, the snakes have been de-venomed while still retaining their fangs. In 2005 a snake breeding centre was set up in the temple. 

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