The Nine Emperor Gods Seal is kept in an ornate gold chest
The Seal of the Nine Emperor Gods Temple Association arrived at the beautiful Tow Boo Kong in Butterworth this week. The event was celebrated by an international community of temples, in a raucous, colorful and joyous parade. They told me that it could set a record in Malaysia for the longest procession ever held, and well it could have.
There were groups there from Bangkok, Taiwan and Singapore as well as representatives of all of the Nine Emperor Gods Temples in Malaysia. I was told that there were (auspiciously) 88 floats in the parade.
As I was in Penang (by coincidence), it was only a short ferry ride over to Butterworth to join the party! Here are a few photos that only begin to show how dramatic it all was…
The White Tiger Protects the Seal
Colorfully dressed participants from Thailand
Friends from Taiwan came SHORT...
And TALL!
Cheryl
Nine Emperor Gods Festival 
Wow! I didn’t realize there were things happening while you were away at the weekend. How perfect! Do you happen to know how many Nine Emperor Gods Temples there are in Malaysia?
There’s plenty of Nine Emperor Gods Temples in Malaysia.. Some they celebrate it in smaller scale..
Its widely celebrate in KL, Penang, Taiping,Perak and Kedah..
I understand that there are close to 50 Nine Emperor Gods Temples in Malaysia. I would like to see them all!
I think more than 50 temple.
In Sungai Petani,Kedah alone, there’s around 8 temple along the “Pekan Lama” road… And 5-6 more surrounding sungai petani.. But the crowd is not that much, since most of the devotees already been divided into different temple.. :p
I highly recommend the Hong Kong street/Carnarvon Street temple in Penang if you planning to follow the send-off on the last day..
well, I’ll be here for the send off in Ampang. I have to concentrate on one temple as so much happens there.
You should do a blog on the temples in Sungai Petani! I think that the influence of the Thais on the festivals to the north is pretty interesting. They are much more in to the piercings and trance elements. Ampang is quite tame in that regard. Thanks for the comments! Glad that you are reading!
I wish to do so, but currently I’m still a student and I don’t have my own transport so its pretty troublesome for me to move around and make the coverage… 😦
In sungai petani, there’s not that much of piercing, mostly in penang, hong kong street temple, one of the oldest nine god emperor temple around..
Thanks for the blog writeup as well, I’m really enjoy all the post.. cheer