The Snake Temple, Penang · The Snakes That Came by Themselves

The Snake Temple in Penang is dedicated to Chor Soo Kong, and numbers of venomous snakes lie coiled inside it. Worshippers share the hall with them, and the snakes mostly do not move.

The story is that after the temple was built the snakes crawled in by themselves and could not be driven out, so they were kept as guardians; they are quietest on the days when the incense burns thickest.

Those at the temple explain it as the incense making the snakes drowsy. Others say: inside the temple these snakes do not bite, but once outside the gate it is not certain.

Folklore / Penang · Malaysia / 1850