Places of Worship & Devotion

The Debak Lung San Temple was said to be initiated before 1930, the earlier temple was a simple hut about 2 kilometers from the current location. The history of this small town, Debak, is more than 130 years. Earlier on Lord Tua Pek Kong was the only host deity; Xuan Tian Shang Ti (玄天上帝) was later hosted in by devotees’ request. Guan Gong (關公) joined in recently, forming the current 3 main host deities in this temple. Earlier, it was said that Guan Gong or similar character was seen many times near the temple doorstep. It was later learnt that Lord Guan Gong wanted to be hosted in this temple; that was the legend how Guan Gong became the host deity of Lung San Temple in Debak.

Leang Shen Temple, literally in Chinese is ‘Two Sages Old Temple’. There is no record on where the ‘two sages’ were from as there are a total 7 main host deities in the temple; when the temple was first initiated, there was only Ma Zhu, the Taoist Goddess of the Sea worshipped in the temple. Spaoh is a small town of Betong division, about half an hour off the Trans Borneo Highway; it is about 3 to 3 ½ hour drive from Kuching City. The temple is situated next to the Paku River, and nearby a friendly Malay fishing village. The origin of the temple was said to be from a businessman who used to travel along Paku River & nearby tributaries to do businesses. He brought along the deity Ma Zhu & censer in his boat for spiritual support & protection. As the population of Spaoh grew, he settled down in Spaoh in about 1920 (& became the first Kapitan or village head), and naturally also built a simple temple for Ma Zhu in this small town. As time went by, additio...