Kuala Lumpur Kuan Yin Temple (GPS: 3.13955, 101.69889) is a Chinese temple in Kuala Lumpur. Its official name is Wei Zhen Gong Guan Yin Temple (Traditional Chinese: 威鎮宮觀音寺, Simplified Chinese: 威镇宮观音寺) The temple is managed by the Selangor Hokkien Association. It is located on Jalan Maharajalela, beside Jalan Stadium.
Though the Kuala Lumpur Kuan Yin Temple today receives worshippers and devotees from all Chinese ethnic groups, it was established by the Hokkien community. It is not known when exactly was the Kuan Yin Temple established, though the bronze incense burner at the temple bears the inscription of the 1st Moon of the 24th year of Guangxu, of the Qing Dynasty, corresponding to 22 January, 1898. If this were the founding date of the temple, then it can be deduced that the temple is over a hundred years old already.
The Kuan Yin Temple was originally known as a pavilion. Its name was elevated to temple during the Japanese Occupation, at the declaration of a Japanese army officer who saw the temple as he was passing by on his bicycle. Realising that it was a temple built for the goddess Kuan Yin, or Kannon Bosatsu (観音菩薩) in Japanese. On the attendant's table, he wrote a calligraphy on a scroll the name "Guan Yin Temple". Thereupon he also made a sizable donation with a stack of military bank notes.
Visitors to the Kuan Yin temple enters through a four-column archway. The central arch bears the name of the temple 觀音寺 (Guānyīn sì). To its right are the words 迴光 (huí guāng), which means "by the last radiance of the setting sun", while to its left are the words 返照 (fǎnzhào), meaning "rediscover consciousness before eternity".
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