AMPANG: Hundreds gathered at a 160-year-old Amitabha Buddhist temple yesterday to sign a petition to preserve the building.
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The temple could be demolished to make way for the 1.8km Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang Expressway (SUKE).
Six hundred signatures were collected from visitors and devotees from different religious backgrounds by 1.30pm yesterday.
A temporary committee had been formed to preserve the temple led by chairman Fan Fui Siong with Teratai assemblyman Jenice Lee as an adviser.
“Prolintas Sdn Bhd, offered to move the temple to a bigger space but this is not an issue regarding space,” said Lee.
“We are concerned about preserving the history of the temple itself.”
Lee said the temple was the oldest of three old temples inthe Ampang area that predated Malaya.
The other temples are about 140 and 100 years old.
She suggested the temple be turned into a historical heritage and tourist attraction, and that the highway could be realigned towards the nearby riverside or to the parking lot behind the temple.
Lee said residents were also doubtful the proposed highway would alleviate traffic woes.
She said she would bring the matter up to the state assembly next month.
Currently, five nuns, including head nun See Bee Gan, 67, live in the temple with two adopted daughters — a young child and elder daughter, See Geat Gok, 43.
They have been living in the temple for 39 years.
“Many generations from Ampang come here to pray,” said Geat Gok.
“DoesnÂ't that make this place historical?”
Frankie Leong (pic), 49, a committee member from Amitabha Live Education in Taman Putra told The Malay Mail he was afraid Chinese traditions were being pushed out.
“Any temple, church or mosque more than 100 years old should be considered historical,” said Leong.
Ngoi Kin Fatt, 47, said he visits the temple three times a year since moving to Ampang 30 years ago.
“If they (developers) can leave it alone, that would be better,” said Ngoi.
The land where the temple is located is said to have been donated by a tin mining company to a monk who initially built a wooden temple.
After a grant for the land was provided in 1910 from the British, the temple was later upgraded to brick in 1941.
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