Wat Prachumthat Canaram,Kelantan

There are 3 temples at Kampung Jubakar, the famous for sure is Sitting Buddha, whereas opposite from Wat Machimmaram is this Wat Prachumthat Canaram, and another Wat (temple) which was symbolized by lion (not sure its name).

If the famous Wat Machimmaram’s visitor can have only few visitors (less than the numbers of fingers of yours), these 2 less famous Wat is even miserably few people.

We saw only 1 local in total in these 2 temples- A local who was working on Wat Prachumthat Canaram renovation.


My personal thought is other than Wat Machimmaram is with a huge sitting Buddha, all the 3 temples were impressively magnificent each of them.

I have never experienced to visit temple with such few visitors, but I think this is not a bad thing either as I could take whichever angle with my photos without any blockage of passerby. The only worry I had was doggy might think we were of no good intention and come after us haha.

In front of Wat Prachumthat Canaram, there is this seven-headed dragon, seems like very fierce, bit scary sculpture


But Wat Prachumthat Canaram was not opened its main hall, think maybe this temple was not a temple for tourist but worship place for the locals

Beside the main temple, written Chinese 殿藏地, means store of the Buddhism books, but its board was in Chinese, but not in Thai, feeling a bit strange…

There’re few residential unit which I believe belonged to the Siamese, but there seems no people was at home during our visit, wondering if they went to school or workplace?

After we syok (find happy) our ownselves, we continued our journey to another temple nearby.

On the midway walking to this temple, we double check with the Siamese stall operator that the no 27 bus route is to Malaysia-Thailand border. But she seemed couldn’t understand none in my Bahasa Melayu, leaving me in stars/doubts if due to my too-formal BM or Siamese here do not use BM in their daily life…

The next temple was even more “peaceful” totally no human being around, neither did a dog or cat, except the statue lion at the entrance.

The temple seemed to be very astonishing, but don’t know why I had a strong feeling of abandoned. My brother was too observant to see a lot of spider webs on top of the temple. Some even of big spiders which web area can be as wide as 2 to 3 meters from temple roof to the trees beside! And I have no idea why the webs weren’t destroyed during heavy rain pour.


Seeing such large magnitude of spider web, we started to carefully exploring this temple, afraid of accidentally “invade” into their territory and they come after us.

Really wondering if reason existence of these spider webs- because of abandoned temple or become of Buddhism “non-killing” ideology?

Nevertheless, something worth seeing in this temple compound- the residential houses behind were of different style of architecture-non repetitive. There was Malay style’s rumah kampong” and Thai’s temple style.

After taking some commercial for Jetstar- X posture. We took the bus no 27 and continued our journey to Malaysia-Thailand border—Pengkalan Kubor!

吉兰丹 Wat Prachumthat Canaram, Kelantan Malaysia

在Kampung Jubakar就有三座佛庙，最有名的当然是坐佛，而马路对面就有Wat Prachumthat Canaram 还有一间以狮子做象征物的佛庙（不知道它的名字）

既然著名的坐佛都可以少人到十只手指可以数到（2小时内），这两座比较无名的佛庙参观人数就更加可怜了，我们在这两座庙，就只是看到1个当地人，正在修建Wat Prachumthat Canaram。

其实个人觉得，除了Wat Machimmaram 有一个很大的坐佛，三座佛庙都是一样富丽堂皇，可观性都蛮大的。我本身是之前没有去过这么少人的膜拜场所，所以觉得没人也好，至少拍照不用多番迁就，就只是怕狗儿以为我们来者不善，向我们追来。

Wat Prachumthat Canaram 门口有着一对七头神龙守护，感觉有点猛。

这一间Wat Prachumthat Canaram应该是没有开放的，大门深锁着。。

旁边就有一座殿藏地，牌坊就只是中文，而没有泰文，感到有点奇怪。。

里面有一些民居，相信是泰裔，可是没看到任何人在家的迹象，上班或上学了？

我们在没人理会自爽后，才步行到附近的另一座佛庙。
在路途中，为了再三确认我们要乘搭巴士的路线，我们去了一间泰裔经营的小食店打听打听，可是对方好象听不明白我的马来文，不知道是不是我的马来文太教材式（不是吉兰丹马来话）？又或者这里的泰裔在日常生活用不上马来语？

接下来去的佛庙更加“与世无争”，除了我们，没有其他人的踪迹，也没有半只狗儿猫儿。。。它只有守门狮坐镇：


佛庙看起来也是很美，可是就是不知道为什么有点被遗弃的感觉，
眼尖的弟弟，看到佛庙上方，堆满了蜘蛛，而且都是大蜘蛛，其中一些蜘蛛网的区域竟然是从佛庙到距离佛庙两三公尺旁的大树，不知道为什么蜘蛛网不会被大雨摧毁？

看到了这么壮观的蜘蛛网后，我们开始小心翼翼的探索这一座佛庙，深怕不小心被“网罗”，引来大蜘蛛追随。

真的好奇这一座庙那么多大蜘蛛网是因为被荒废了，还是佛家的不杀生理念？

不过，这一座佛庙也有值得看看的地方，里面的民居各式各样，没有一间是同样风格的，有马来高脚屋，也有好象佛庙式（应该是泰式）。

拍了一些Jetstar式的X形照，我们就在这一座蜘蛛网佛庙外再度乘搭27号巴士前往马泰边界-Pengkalan Kubor。

Kelantan- Wat Machimmaram 吉兰丹 坐佛庙

After paying a visit to Sleeping Buddha Wat Polithivan, we continue our journey to the next destination –Wat Machimmaram-the Sitting Buddha.

Departing from Chabang Empat, we took the bus no 27 which was initially departed from Kota Bharu. We found that the coming bus was numbered 27, but with another company’s name and logo, but yet we stopped it to ask if it going to the Wat Machimmaram

The public buses route in Kota Bharu can be operated by different companies with the same route, do take note of this.


Data gathered from the net was saying Wat Machimmaram is located at Kampung Jubakar.

In Kota Bharu , when you were to take bus to visit these tourist spots, remember to note down the Buddha posture, eg whether is a Sleeping Buddha temple or Sitting Buddha temple. It’s because the bus drivers normally don’t remember the “long-winded” name of these Siamese temples,but only the posture of the buddhas.


As mentioned previously , the driver always failed from our expectation. Luckily this time we observed closely the brown-coloured signboard all the way after boarding.


The impression that Sitting Buddha gave me was even greater, I think the sunny sky had played a big part in this. The Buddha was simply too impressive when we were there.


And same function with Sleeping Buddha temple, it stores those urn. But not long ago before I came, there was a stolen case happened in Wat Machimmaram. The thief had stolen ashes of an eminent monk! It was reported to the police, but nobody was found guilty. This is insane ! totally of no morality!

The containment action against it was the top floor was locked up from visitor  , no outsider than relative could be allowed to enter the top floor compound. Sigh…nowadays temple also gotta guard against others…

Although the temple is in Siamese naming system, but the interior is pretty “Chinese”


Opposite of Wat Machimmaram, there are 2 more magnificent Wat, which totally had no visitor/tourist existence. It’s of very local feel and totally non-commercial , well I will talk about it in the next article.

Fare:
Bus no 27 from Chabang Empat to Kampung Jubakar RM 1.30

吉兰丹 坐佛庙 Wat Machimmaram,Kelantan Malaysia

我们参观了睡佛后，就前往下一座佛庙-坐佛Wat Machimmaram。

从Chabang Empat,我们等候从哥打峇鲁上来的27号巴士，这里哥打峇鲁的巴士，是根据巴士路线而分号码，所以同样路线可以由不同的巴士公司经营。

网上的战略说，我们要前往的坐佛就在Kampung Jubakar。从哥打峇鲁搭巴士要去参观这些庙宇，其实重要的是记得佛尊的形态，如睡佛,站佛，或者坐佛，然后告诉巴士司机Sleeping Buddha,Standing Buddha 或者Sitting Buddha，因为你告诉他们什么什么Wat Machimmaram，Wat Pothivihan，他们也是不大清楚的，他们只是记得佛座的形态。

真如前文所言，巴士司机常常都“不负期待”，忘了提醒我们到站，幸好一路上都有留意棕色路牌。

Wat Machimmaram这个名字对我而言，很难记得，我是记得它的Machi罢了。。真麻吉。。

坐佛给我的感觉更震撼，可能参观的那天烈日当空，坐佛在太阳的照耀下，佛光四射！


其实坐佛的功能就好象睡佛，里面是放骨灰的，可是前不久，竟然发生了骨灰被盗的案件！有贼偷去高僧的骨灰，说是发挥出来的法力吓人，真是不道德，迟早得到报应！

现在坐佛的最高那一层锁起来了，不给非亲戚上去。所以你说是不是世风日下？连佛堂都不得不防备他人。

虽然佛堂名字蛮泰国的，可是佛堂里面蛮华人的，注满许多华文写明各个罗汉。

在Wat Machimmaram对面还有两座壮观的佛庙，根本没有游客的足迹，感觉非常地道，没有丝毫的商业味,下回再谈。


费用：
巴士27号从Chabang Empat 至Kampung Jubakar RM1.30

Kelantan-Sleeping Buddha-Wat Polithivan 吉兰丹 睡佛庙

There are a lot of Thai descendant in Kelantan, majority of them are living at the border between Malaysia and Thailand, which is at Tumpat district.

They are called Siamese, where their living style are almost same to those living in Thailand. Religious in Buddhism thus you can find a lot of magnificent Buddhist temple in Tumpat; and among them, the sleeping Buddha temple which named Wat Polithivan, is located not far away from Kota Bahru.

We didn’t rent a car to travel around, because after our calculation, for only 2 of us, it’s much more worthy to take the public transportation.

Before coming to Kelantan, already get to hear that Kelantan’s public transportation system is not that good in service, advisable to have own transport. But to be fair, after I personally experience the public buses in Kelantan, I would say the public transportation is not that weak. (its airconditioning is pretty cold)

Kelantan is a state with low density of population, so you cant expect it to have good bus service as those in Singapore with 5 to 10 min interval bus frequency. As in fact, even in Kuala Lumpur , there is no such frequent bus service either. By taking into the fact that difficult business environment in Kelantan, its 30 min interval bus service is acceptable.

From Kota Bharu, we took bus no 27 to a small town called Chabang Empat (bus 27 serves from Kota Bharu to Pengkalan Kubor border).


In Malay, Chabang Empat means crossroad, and in fact crossroad as seen in Chabang Empat was too common. We specially asking the bus driver favour to remind us when reaching the place. While travelling, we also take note of the brown-colour signboard which indicate the Wat Polithivan

Bus driver never did out of our expectation, he really forgotten our request, until we stood out then he remember us these 2 tourist….

Chabang Empat is a very normal small town.Before I came to KB I already get to know from Cari Forum that there is 1 malay old man doing the taxi business here in this small town to fetch tourist to the famous Wat Polithivan. I tried to get other mean of transport to go there, but the people there were like “united” together, straight away waived to the old man our arrival. (seemed it was the monopoly business by the old man). As in fact, I did saw this old man before coming to KB , his trademark is having a Haji cap , with a green-coloured old car…

Info that I gathered from Cari was the taxi fare is RM8, but the traveler was traveling by himself , that’s why negotiation would be better. We were in 2, old man already offered with RM15, we can only act poor … and last price RM10.

Wat Polithivan was about 5km away from Chabang Empat, and there seems no any public transportation passby there, and this situation has nurtured a good monopoly business to the old man

Wat Polithivan is the second largest sleeping Buddha statue in South-East Asia.There is another one in Penang , in which I think both are about the same size. The difference is this sleeping Buddha in Kelantan was like isolated and forgotten. The whole compound was only us 2 tourist, the old man driver and some vegetarian canteen operators…feel very peaceful there.


Sleeping Buddha functions similar to the one in Penang , storing the urn and a lot of picture showing the situation in Hell, warning people not to commit wrongdoing.

And 12 buddha which symbolized the 12 zodiac in Chinese, seems great Chinese culture influence here.


Beside the sleeping Buddha , was a old temple which I guessed it was the 1st temple in Wat Polithivan.
。

And there were a pair of peacock, I found it’s pretty pity to be locked in cage.

And in fact, I noticed Wat Polithivan served another function in the community which is the local stray dog warm home. There were so many stray dogs inside the Wat compound, I think due to the fact the Malay don’t really like to see the dogs appear around their houses.

Our driver had proved my this observation- when we were approaching the Wat entrance, this old man even turn his steering and about to hit the stray door besides the road. That dog was scared and fall down to the drain.(me either almost fall down from seat)


On our way back to Chabang Empat, this old man told us that RM10 was not enough for him to Makeh (Kelantanese’s dialect which mean to eat). He asking for RM12, where RM 10 for petrol and RM 2 is for food.

Another taken his service , what to do ?


Expenses:
Kota Bharu to Chabang Empat (27bus) RM2
Taxi through and flo Chabang Empat RM12

吉兰丹 睡佛庙 Wat Polithivan, Kelantan Malaysia

吉兰丹有不少的泰裔后人，他们都聚居于与泰国接壤的大马边界，也就是道北Tumpat县市。

泰裔就好象普通的泰国人一样，多数信仰佛教，所以在道北县可以看到许多壮观的佛堂，而离开哥打峇鲁最近而且出名的是这一个吉兰丹睡佛Wat Polithivan 。

我们没有租用汽车代步，因为我们算算一下，还是乘搭公共交通比较划算。

虽然来吉兰丹玩之前，就听说吉兰丹的公共交通不完善，最好有自己的代步工具。不过当我自己体验了那里的交通服务后，我觉得吉兰丹的公共交通不弱！而且冷气蛮强的! 当然在吉兰丹那人口比较少的州属，巴士服务当然不会好象新加坡巴士那样10分钟一趟频密（吉隆坡都没有），可是考量吉兰丹巴士公司的艰难经营，实在不容易维持呢！（吉兰丹巴士大约30分钟一趟）

我们从哥打峇鲁的中央巴士站，乘搭27号巴士去到Chabang Empat （这个27号巴士服务是从哥打峇鲁到Pengkalan Kubor马泰边界）。

这个Chabang Empat 在马来文的意思是十字路口，这样的路口实在太普通了，所以除了交待巴士司机提醒我们下车的地方，我们自己也一路上注意路牌—棕色路牌Wat Polithivan。（怕司机忘了）

巴士司机不负期待，差点忘了停车，是我们站了起来，他才想起我们这外来游客。。。

Chabang Empat 是一个普通的市镇，当然我之前已经从佳丽论坛知道这里有一个老人家使用私家车载送游客到Wat Polithivan。可是我还想尝试其他的管道去到哪儿，只是镇上的人们好象都很团结，直接招来同样那个老人家，（看来这是独门生意了），我还没来吉兰丹就已经看过这一个老人家。。。。标志是带着一顶Haji 帽，还有他的青色老车。。。。

网上的资料是老人家收费8元，但是那个老兄是单人行，所以议价比较好商量，而我们一去问，老人家立即就开价15元，唯有装可怜。。最后10元定价。

Wat Polithivan离开Chabang Empat 市镇大约5公里，好象没有公车抵达。无形间为老人家营造了独市。

Wat Polithivan据称是全东南亚第二大睡佛，槟城也是有一座，可是我早已经忘了它是多大了，看起来好象一样大。。 可是吉兰丹这一座睡佛好象都蛮被遗忘似的，全间佛庙就只是我们两个游客加上司机当地人，斋堂经营者加上三两位和尚，感觉还蛮“平静”。

睡佛的功能就好象槟城的，里面是放骨灰的，然后旁边画了一些地狱的图画，警惕世人。

也有12座佛陀代表着华人的十二生肖，看来这座泰国佛庙也是深受华人文化影响。



睡佛的旁边有一座荒废了的佛庙，我估计，应该是Wat Polithivan第一座庙的地点。


旁边还养着一对孔雀，感觉还蛮可怜的。。

其实这座Wat Polithivan 还有一个功能，可能不是很多人看得到，它是这个社区的流浪狗收留所，里面的流浪狗可真多，可见狗儿在这马来人居多的地方没有立足之地。。我们的司机驶进佛庙的路口时，还特地甩一甩尾，吓跑路口的流浪狗，也把我吓倒。对狗的憎恨，可见一斑。



在回途中，老人家说10元车资不够，要12元，10元是汽油费，2元给他Ma Geh (吉兰丹马来语，吃的意思)。

都上了车，还能怎样？




费用：
哥打峇鲁27号巴士到Chabang Empat RM2
德士来回Chabang Empat RM12