Goddess Of Mercy Temple

This guide to the Goddess Of Mercy Temple in Penang Island starts with two altar tablets, one for Guan Yin and a quietly larger one for the sea goddess Mazu, and traces how Hokkien sailors funded the temple around 1800 before the community shifted its devotion during a renovation in 1824. It follows the temple's role as shared courtroom for two rival Chinese communities, a role that ended after street fighting during the 1867 Penang riots. Take a moment at the low knoll the temple sits on, said in feng shui to be a dragon's head.