Architecture: Thean Hou Temple

It’s now a new school year, but I am continuing my Malaysian architecture project that I started last year. Malaysian architecture is interesting because there are so many cultures that are mixed together here. Malay and Arabic architecture is blended with colonial buildings, Indian motifs, and Chinese temples. Surrounding all of these cultural influences are towering skyscrapers. For this shoot, I shifted from Malay architecture to Chinese, and visited Thean Hou Temple, which is located in Kuala Lumpur. Built in 1989, it is situated on the top of a hill, pretty much hidden from view by trees, but it has a fantastic view of downtown KL, where the landscape is dominated by Menara Tower and the Petronas Towers.

Thean Hou temple maintains the Chinese heritage of Malaysia admirably. There were people still visiting the temple, along with several tourists. The temple featured, differing from Malay architecture, details that are fascinating both from a distance and up close.  There are dragons that are carved into columns and that sit on the roof.

The weather was fantastic when I was taking the pictures, because the sky was unusually clear, and sunny. However, it was not so bright that it washed everything out. When printing the pictures, the sky appear white, with little detail to make it distinct, so I left them mostly white instead of darkening it. I heightened the contrast as well so that the detail in the architecture stood out.

This shoot was interesting because of how different it was from my previous ones. I had focused on Malay architecture before this, but I expanded into Chinese architecture. It is just as Malaysian as Malay, and in many ways it surpasses Malay architecture in complexity and interest.