Field Trip - Adele New

On 09 March 2020, my Study Of Religion (SOR) class have an field trip to three religious places near Kuala Lumpur, which is Sri Mahamariamman Temple, St. Mary’s Cathedral and Masjid Wilayah. We take the bus from college and travel to our first destination, Sri Mahamariamman Temple, It is located at the edge of Chinatown in Jalan Bandar. This temple is the oldest Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur, and also the oldest functioning Hindu temple in Malaysia. This temple is not simple as other temples, it is colorful and it’s Architecture is also the main point for foreigners to visit this temple and know more about hindu and the history. There are two architectures that amaze me in this temple, which is the Main Prayer Hall and Gopuram. This Temple resembles the form of a human body lying down with the feet towards the east and the head positioned towards the west. This gopuram in this temple corresponds to the feet of the body, It shows between the material and spiritual world. The main prayer hall has a richly decorated ceiling and there are three shrines in the main temple marked by an onion dome which can be seen from outside of the temple and four small shrines placed around the main temple building. This temple is built in the south indian style and the most outstanding part is the Gopuram which has 5-tiered. It is the tallest structure in this temple, it has a pyramid-shaped gate tower that is decorated with a lot of Hindu gods, there were sculpted by artisans that came from southern india.

Other than that, there is also a lot of art of Hindu gods on the wall, i saw the gods that Mr. Irwan taught us during his class, like Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Ganapati and more, it reminded me of their stories.

The time for us to stay at the temple has come to an end, we take the bus and travel to the second religious place, St. Mary’s Cathedral, located in Kuala Lumpur. While we step into the church, a priest brings us into a meeting room and explains to us about the history and background of Christian and this church. After the talk, he brought us into the church and continued his explanation. The church design is based on Early English Gothic architecture, The nave can adapt a congregation of 180 people and the chancel, a choir of 20. The most beautiful things that I found in the church are the stained glasses, the stained glasses are colorful and they have the art of their gods on it, such as Jesus. After that, the priest brings us back to the meeting room and has a Q&A section for us. My classmates ask a lot of things about Christian and the church. The priest also answers all of the questions one by one, we take a group photo outside the church before we all leave.

The last place we visited is Masjid Wilayah, the mosque requires women to wear tudung, or a scarf to wrap our hair, long sleeves and long pants. Mr. Irwan had notified us to wear proper attire and bring our own scarf there, but unfortunately I forgot to bring my own scarf. When we reached the mosque, the lecturer brought us to a place that borrowed visitors that didn't wear the proper attire, so I borrowed a scarf from them and wore it. Then a lady made us form into a few groups and each group will have a lady to become our tour guide. The lady explained to us about the architecture of the mosque. The mosque is huge and outstanding, the design of the mosque is similar to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. The design is the mix of Malay and ottoman architectural styles, they used a composite material of glass fiber fabric and mixed with epoxy resin to make 22 domes durable and light.

design is a blend of Ottoman and Malay architectural styles, heavily influenced by the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. It has 22 domes made from a composite material of glass fiber fabric mixed with epoxy resin to make it durable and light. Not only that, this mosque also has the sacred glass, but the glass here doesn't have any art or god’s picture on it. Before the lady brought us to other places, we took a group photo inside the mosque, where people do their prayer. After that, she brought us to the classroom. The mosque provides religion class everyday for students, students can go there and study after their school. Before we went back to college, the mosque provided us with lunch.

I enjoyed this field trip, I have learnt many things about different religions while having fun with friends. No matter what religion, I believe that the purpose of it is to guide us to the right path and make us a better person. Malaysia is a multicultural society, our country have many Different races of people, Different religions and also culture, the people here will understand, accept and learn the different cultures from the others.