MALAYSIA | Monday, 24 November 2014 | Views [441] | View Smaller Image
Hundreds of Yap clan members have flocked to the smoke-shrouded Yap Kongsi Temple in Georgetown, Penang, to throw a birthday party. The birthday boy is not one of the dozens of people obstructing traffic, praying or burning wads of paper money, but Hoay Che Chun Wang, the patron deity of the clan. He turns 800 today. United by a shared Hokkien Chinese heritage and a proud history on the famously multicultural Malaysian island, the clan revellers count two mosques, a Hindu temple, a Synagogue and Christian Church among their neighbours.
