The present-day version of the Teochew community's Hiang Tiang Siang Ti Temple dates from 1889. In 1968 the building underwent a major renovation, and the statues of the deities were refurbished. A procession is held on the fourth day of every twelfth lunar month to commemorate this particular restoration (although further reconstruction obviously takes place on a regular basis).

This evening we happened upon the latest iteration of the procession (actually, because of the way the calendar falls, it's the second one of 2019, the previous event having taken place on 9 January, while we were still in Pontianak).

I say "happened upon" because there's always something going on in Kuching, and we're generally the last to know about it.

Anyway, we'd just attended the Carol Service at St Thomas's Cathedral, and were heading for the Old Bazaar Cafe for a beer, when we heard the unmistakable sound of drums and gongs and firecrackers.


So we followed the procession of floats, lions, and dragons along Carpenter Street. It goes slowly, stopping often to allow for new salvos of firecrackers and various forms of veneration.

(Apologies for the fuzzy photos. I just tried to capture some of the atmosphere.)





We treated ourselves to a (now fairly unusual) bottle of Tiger, and then caught up with the procession again as it looped back past the Tua Pek Kong Temple.











Click here and here for a taste of some of the sights and sounds.

What a round of festivals at the moment... Solstice, Christmas, the temple procession... And there's still New Year to come. It's all good. You can't celebrate too much, in my opinion.