Snake Temple Penang Malaysia

The tropical island of Penang in Malaysia is really worth a visit or even more.
One of the attractions is the Snake Temple, with its poisonous Temple Pit Vipers
(Tropidolaemus wagleri).
The Snake Temple, perhaps the only temple of its kind in the world, has been built about 1850 in memory of Chor Soo Kong, a buddhist monk,
who was also a healer and gave shelter
to snakes in the jungle.
While the temple builing was completed, snakes appeared on its own. In honour to the beautiful sky of Penang, the Snake Temple has been originally named The Temple of the Azure Cloud.

A sign outside the temple says, that the Temple Pit Vipers (Tropidolaemus wagleri) has been de-venomed, while travel guides say the snakes are poisonous, but don´t harm anybody because of the heavy insense stick smoke inside the temple. No incidents with the snakes seems to be recorded, but to be honest, my hands been shaking while I was near the Vipers. A guy from the temple told me, that there are more snakes in a small room, beside the main temple building and he told me, that the de-venomed Vipers are marked with a red spot on their head, like the Viper on the picture above. I went back inside the temple, to have a closer look at the snakes and couldn´t find a single one, marked with a red spot.

© Asian Attack
Image: Temple Pit Vipers (Tropidolaemus wagleri) inside the Snake Temple, Penang, Malaysia