Places of Worship & Devotion

The Japanese Occupation started in 1941 in Sarawak and ended in 1945. Tze Yin Khor in Lubok Antu was partly founded due to the war. Lubok Antu is a small town of the Sri Aman division, about 4 hours from Kuching by road; from the Trans Borneo highway junction alone, it take more than 30 minutes to reach this small border town, one of the very few townships in Sarawak sits next to Kalimantan of Indonesia. In 1941, after Kuching was controlled by the Japanese force, small inland towns were like a domino, one by one fallen to the Japanese as their soldiers moved along the Batang Lupar to the interior. Lubok Antu was no exception. As the Japanese landed in Engkilili which was the nearest town to Lubok Antu, and about a day journey by river, the soldiers faced fierce resistance from the Iban warriors at the Batang Lupar upstream. As the Ibans slowly lost ground to modern gun power, anxiety permeated the Lubok Antu township residents where many of them were Chinese. ...

Tze Yin Khor is located in Sri Aman, the capital of 2nd Division of Sarawak; it is about 200 km by road from Kuching. There is only one traditional Chinese temple in this small town. 9 Batang (river) Lupar next to Tze Yin Khor The temple is located at the river bank of Batang Lupar, famous for the Tidal Wave called Benak locally. This is one of the few temples in Sarawak which is more than a century. The present glamorous architecture was completed in 1993. Around the year 1849 when James Brooke established its forces in the Skrang region near Sri Aman, the Chinese, particularly the Teoh Chew pioneers, started to do business in the area. As the Brooke Administration reinforced its presence in Batang Lupar with a fort, more Chinese especially Teoh Chew settled down in Sri Aman or around the Batang Lupar area. Before the turn of 20th Century, a small temple was thus built to cater for the growing Chinese population; this was the earlier Tze Yin Khor, with Tze Pei Goddess...

About two centuries ago, Ching San Yen area was already a prosperous port for Kuching. It served as one of the two major ports of entry to Kuching or Sarawak at large at that time (the other one is the Santubong river mouth), for vessels from the South China Sea. The Brooke Administration at that time also had custom offices or the like established for purposes of taxation & other clearance. The temple was already established at that time for the Chinese immigrants. It also served as a first stop for the newly arriving Chinese immigrants to pay respect and to thank for the long safe journey, before moving on to the hinterland or other parts of Sarawak. Many adherents believe that Ching San Yen was built on a good Feng Shui; the prosperity of Kuching is associated with that since then. Accordingly, Ching San Yen is seated on a Golden Turtle in the North (the Muara Tebas hill), and facing a flowing river in front on the South. The location might have been chosen car...