Temple Of The Wild Boars

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Every weekend, towards the evening, busloads of people and hundreds of others in cars and motorcycles are flocking to the town of Taiping. The influx starts on Fridays, and continues on Saturdays and Sundays. At one time, you can see at least 40 buses parked around the area! Further inside, near the temple grounds, the presence of hundreds of cars and motorcycles will be the order of the day.

The reason for the above exodus is this. There is an Hindu temple – the Sri Muniswarar Allayam - just above the foothill of a small hill range, near the housing estate named, Taman Zenith. Every evening, without fail, at about 7pm, several wild boars come out into the open, from the dense forest beside the temple, to the temple grounds, and run into the den specially made for them, amidst the cheers of the people, waiting so patiently around the ropes of the enclosure.

People are awed and bewildered by their temerity, as they eagerly come towards them, and feed on whatever edible offerings given to them. Words have that these wild boars bring luck to whoever having physical contacts with them. There are stories of people having struck it rich in the numbers games, after having touched the creatures. Now, one can see people, on a very crowded day, rushing head over heels, just to touch them. One can also, very often, see some, with their favourite numbers for the weekend, rubbing these papers on the bodies of the wild boars, mumbling, “ Money come! Money come!” The Hindu temple is also having busy weekends attending to the devotees, praying for their good well being. Flowers and prayer items are being sold out at brisk space.

Food for the wild boars are being sold in the temple grounds. One can be tickled to see the wild boars eating anything that was offered – rice varieties of nasi campur, nasi lemak, fried as well as curry chicken! Having had their fill, one or two wild boars will just lie down and doze off around there, while others will go around to people calling out to them with packets of food in their hands.

In these bleak economic times, one wonders how people can find the time and resources to come from all the way from as far as Johor and Pahang, just to visit this small temple near the forest. Perhaps, they have some hidden anticipations.