Greeting everyone,
How are you? I hope you have an awesome day today that is better than yesterday.
World Tua Pek Kung Festival 2023
Last Saturday, I went to Temple Tai Pak Kong with @tawadak24 and @gideongys because we heard they were celebrating the World Tua Pek Kung Festival for 2023, where Tua Pek Kung followers from outside Sabah came and celebrated that festival. It is considered a huge festival because some followers have come from other countries like Taipei, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and other places.
The event officially started at 5 p.m. We come earlier because most of the road will be closed for the parade. There will be a 1.5-kilometer parade from the temple around Penampang City, and it is expected to finish after 2 hours of walking.
Photo distribute through wassap group
Before that event started, it was suddenly raining. But the rain is not stopping them from preparing for the event. There were more than 40 groups that joined the parade. Before the parade (exactly around 1 hour), all the group started chanting and praying to call on their God to possess their selected people. There were a lot of types of God being called at that time. The process takes around 30 minutes.
There were many more groups chanting around, but the rain and the crowds limited my movement.
The place was super noise with music and the lions also dance to celebrate the return of their God on earth .
During the rain, we meet other friends and kill time while drinking coffee at the nearest restaurant. Fortunately, the rain has stopped. I guess it was the power of their prayer to stop the rain, or else the parade would go bad, and I would not risk my camera to take their photo. It's going to be our loss if it continues raining.
THE PARADE BEGIN
After waiting for 3 hours, they started the parade. It's going to be a long journey for them to walk around 1.5 kilometers with their home-made throne.
Here some photo that being capture when the parade start :
The dragon and the lions dance along the way of the parade .
Here come some God that possess the human .
The parade becomes more colorful with neon colors during the night. It was beautiful but at the same time scary because I believe an unknown spirit was joining the event.
The parade from the temple was done around 8.30 pm, but we haven't seen the first group yet. We decide to go back early to prevent traffic jams after the parade finishes. It was my second experience seeing this kind of parade in town. It was an awesome experience to take part as a spectator while at the same time taking that interesting photo.
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoy today's series. See you on another journey.