October 2025 - Nine Emperor Gods Festival
Led by photojournalist Sean Liew, MCG members visited the Taoist Nine Emperor Gods festival at Ampang’s temple that bears the same name. The nine emperor gods festival is unique to Southeast Asia. The deities, who are believed to be the seven stars of the Big Dipper and two less visible stars, were venerated by Chinese tin miners toiling in Ampang who in the 1860s build a temple in their honour.
Held during the first nine days of the 9th Lunar month, the festival is often referred to as a ‘birthday’ festival; it welcomes and sends off the deities. It is a period of spiritual cleansing and praying which is followed by Chinese Malaysian devotees wearing white who congregate at the temple from across Malaysia, some staying at the temple dormitories during the celebrations.
Our guide explained the rituals we observed and showed us the different parts of the temple, including a visit to the massive kitchen cooking for the devotees and enabled us to meet a group of devotees who welcomed us in their dorm. The elaborate celebrations over the 9-day period include fire-walking, piercing, slashing with swords and jumping through fire-lit hoops by devotees.
