The Goddess of Mercy Temple
The Goddess of Mercy Temple was founded around 1800. It features a beautiful roof with ornately decorated designs. It’s better known to the locals as the Kuan Yin Teng Temple. It’s located along Pitt Street, Georgetown.
It’s one of the most popular temple in Penang among Penangites. You can see Chinese devotees throng the temple all year round to pay homage and offer prayers to the Goddess of Mercy. It’s a well-known temple in Penang since the old days.
It was said by the old folks that during World War II, the Goddess of Mercy provided a safe shelter to many Penangites. A bomb was said to have dropped from the sky by one of the fighter jets right in front of the temple. Somehow, the bomb went dead when it touched the temple’s ground.
Perhaps it was due to that, you can see locals throng the temple during the Goddess of Mercy’s Celebration Day in the Chinese lunar calendar.
And in the front of the temple’s ground, you can usually see a lot of pigeons flying around as well as feeding on the grains which were given to them by the locals.
There are stalls located outside the temple that sell praying items like joss sticks, candles as well as praying papers for devotees who wish to offer prayers to the Goddess of Mercy. They are normally priced at about RM3.00 per set of praying items.