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 I literally lived in the shadow of Kek Lok Si from 1940 till
about 1948 when I graduated from Chung Ling High School and my father, Yong
Wooi Seng moved to Alor Star to become the principal of Hwa Keow Middle School.
Two families, the Yongs and the Changs shared a rented attap-roofed house
which still stands today though the roof has been changed to metal. Mr. Chang
Tong Yu must be 104 years of age now. He was the principal of Kung Ming Primary
School located just at the bottom of Kek Lok Si Temple next to the Cheah
Chuan Tin Nutmeg store. When I visited him in November 2002, he could still
read newspapers and moved around by himself though with some difficulty.
Mr. Chang and my family shared the total rent of the house which came to
all of $14.00 per month, each family paying $7.00.
An incident occurred during the war which still haunts
my memories till this day. The first Japanese Round-Up occurred some time
in 1942. All residents who lived beyond the bridge which crosses the Ayer
Itam River leading to Kek Lok Si were ordered to get out of their houses
and line up in front of the Nutmeg store. Through the shouts of an interpreter,
all men were ordered to drop their pants and expose their genitals, in order
to humiliate them. One man was a bit hesitant to obey the order. He was slashed
across his forehead with a sabre and started bleeding profusely, a frightening
picture that could not be erased from my mind more than half a century later.
He was not allowed to stop the bleeding until the group was dismissed and
allowed to pull their pants back up. My father, as a teacher from Chung Ling
High School was on the wanted list but he had a travel document issued by
the Japanese showing him as a merchant and being physically stout and dark
with a crew cut, he didn't look like an intellectual. A neighbour by the
name of Ah Kong, who was trying to ingratiate himself to the Japanese, pointed
a finger at my father and cried out "Sen Say, Sen Say" (teacher in Japanese),
but when my father managed to produce the documnent issued by the Japanese
military government with a picture and showing his occupation as a merchant,
Ah Kong was beaten up for lying and my father escaped certain death and torture.
Ten (10) Chung Ling teachers and about 100 students were imprisoned, tortured
and died during the Japanese occupation.
The monks of Kek Lok Si were very kind to make part
of the hill behind the temple available for our family to grow vegetables
and crops such as cassava and sweet potatoes to survive. We soon realized
most of our crops would be stolen by wild boars around harvest time. We had
to stay awake all night to make noises to scare them away. The monks were
given extra rations of rice and Bee Hoon (sticks made of rice powder) by
the Japanese who were primarily Buddhists themselves. We were invited every
week to listen to Buddhist preaching and this was followed by a meal of Char
Bee Hoon (fried bee hoon). We could eat as much as we liked and we really
looked forward to this weekly session of free treats.
Before the war (1941-45), the volume of water in the
Ayer Itam River was much bigger and we boys learned how to swim at Batu Lubang
(stone hole), a stretch of water with a little sandy beach but dominated
by many huge boulders in the middle of the river. Boys just went into the
water completely naked but most of the time trying to hide ourselves in pools
of water between the boulders. We never saw any girls swimming there.
In those days, the ditch near the path going up to
our house had spawning fish at certain seasons and we were able to catch
some of them by setting a net across the ditch. I believe that ditch had
long ago dried up after the dam was built upstream.
If someone is willing to pay a visit to Mr. Chang
today, just go to Chong Kim Chuan Nutmeg store and ask them to lead to our
house. His mind is still clear the last time I visited him. He could give
you all the histoy you need about Kek Lok Si.
Dr Eng Ah
Yin
Pembroke, Ontario,
Canada
E-mail: dreng@nrtco.net
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Dr. Eng Ah Yin, Pembroke,
Ontario, Canada
A resident of Canada for over 40 years now, Dr. Eng was in the vanguard of
the brain-drain from his beloved island home of Penang, Malaysia.
Related
Story: The Monastery on Crane Hill (Huock San)
"A man
determined can move a mountain, but a man devoted can carve one". The story
behind the Kek Lok Si Temple and how one man's vision led to the creation
of South-east Asia's most celebrated Buddhist temple complex.
Click here for full story
by William Chow.
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