Chinese Clan Jetties Tour

God of Heaven in his finery

It's been a while since I posted anything  -- We've been "off-station," as they say when you've been out of Penang.  I guess that expression dates back to the days when there were plantations, or "stations" that people lived on.  Back in Guam, we used to say "off-island."  In the States we'd say "out of town."  But, I digress. . . . back to the Chinese clan jetties tour I want to write about (belatedly).


   A while back, the Chinese God of Heaven had his annual birthday.  The Chinese celebrate it with LOTS of food offerings, huge rods of incense, and noisy fireworks.  The ones in Penang who observe it the most fervently are the Chinese folks who live in clam groups on six jetties that extend into the sea.  (There used to be twelve of them, but unfortunately, developers have  pulled down six of them in an effort to make Penang look like Singapore, Hong Kong and such places that all look the same.)  


    Each jetty has a whole family group, a clan, living on it, and they all share the same name.  So, there's the Lim Jetty, the Chew Jetty and so on.  As I understand it, originally the clans were very poor Chinese people who came to Penang to work and had no money to buy land. So, they built their dwellings on piers extending into the sea.  Now they're a big tourist attraction  and they're very worth seeing.  So, when the God of Heaven's birthday celebration was taking place one night on the jetties, I went along to see what it was all about.  

What I'd expected to see

    I'd been expecting really humble homes, almost like shacks.  This was what I thought I'd see:

Inside a Clan Jetty Home

   

Front Gate of a Clan Jetty Home

      But wow -- I was so wrong!  These structures are real homes, complete with concrete floors and wood on top of it, long hallways with various rooms along them.  One even had a  fancy metal, lockable  gate to provide privacy or at least security.  Of course they don't have cars or car parking there, but they do have bicycle & motorcycle parking lots right here on the pier extending out in the water.  And there's garbage pick-up, too.  There's a temple at both ends of each jetty to keep evil spirits from entering by land or by sea.  They're like a little neighborhoods within a city.

    They say that each clan and its jetty has a different character.  I only saw two of them, but I think it must be true.  The first one I visited was full of hustle and bustle and enterprise.  Almost every home had someone outside selling something or other.  It seemed like a very prosperous, businesslike place.  The second one was quite different.  It was calm and peaceful, with people greeting our little group, asking where we were from and just being friendly.  Those families were very busy setting out food offerings for the god in front of their homes.  On the first jetty, the folks were taking their food to a huge table set up on the land in front of the jetties.  Different strokes for different folks, I guess!

    There were many food items on the offering tables.  The fruits, especially oranges, had a red ribbon wrapped around each piece to indicate that they were meant as a gift to the God of Heaven.  (Though the people evidently eat the offerings themselves later on.)  Many families had laid out a whole roast pig.  Others had put out plates of the "three proteins" (pork, duck and chicken).  I've heard that the chicken and ducks are intact because having the head, tail and feet still on symbolizes completeness.  


 There was much, much more to tell about, but it'll have to wait until next year, I'm afraid.  There's just so much multi-cultural diversity in Malaysia, I think I'll never be able to learn it all.  But I'm going to try!