One of the highlights for those who live in First Garden and surrounding neighborhoods is the Friday Night Pasar Malam (Night Market). Since its inception when I was a teenager, it almost never failed to rain on Fridays. That makes it very difficult for the vendors because it is an open air market. They will have to depend on their umbrellas to keep their merchandise, food, drinks and whatever else they sell dry. Even so, very few customers would brave the rain for things that aren’t really a necessity. Going to the Pasar Malam is more about gluttony; a social or family activity. “Want to go to Pasar Malam this Friday?” is an overused pickup line in these neighborhoods.

This Friday is no exception as it rained quite heavily earlier in the evening. When the night market first opened, the vendors just couldn’t believe the luck – rain every Friday. Then, a story started circulating that the vendors had offended one of the deities during the prayer ceremony on opening night. That deity is Na Tuk Kong (Datuk Kong). Datuk is the Malay word for grandfather. Yes, he is a Malay deity for the Chinese people.

Long, long ago, the Malays, Chinese and some Indians had a practice of paying respect to the Malay elders who passed. These elders were usually Chiefs of villages, warriors or healers. The people pray to these guardian spirits for their continued blessings from the other world.

As the Malays converted to Islam and understood the teachings of Islam more, this practice was abandoned. Many Chinese Taoist and Chinese Buddhist households still pray to the Datuk. In fact, a picture I snapped of Kenric this evening captured a Datuk shrine/house. It is on a grassy median near a row of shops. The Datuk shrine is almost always outdoors as they guard what spirits can enter the area or home. I also saw an Indian man cleaning such a shrine when we first arrived in Kuala Lumpur.

Back to how the vendors offended the Datuk. As you can see in the pictures, most of the vendors are Chinese. The Chinese usually include roast pork or barbecue pork as offerings to their Gods. For something as important as an opening night, the vendors went all out and presented the Gods with an entire roasted pig. Pork is of course strictly forbidden in Islam.

While the other Gods that were prayed to that night, such as The Kitchen God who would bless the food and beverage vendors, The Warrior God who would ward off evil including robbers, The God of Prosperity, etc. seemed happy, The Datuk (who due to his Malay descent is believed to be Muslim) was very displeased. So every Friday, the other Gods would let The Datuk express his dismay with the vendors by raining on them. When he is done this sky would clear up again. This Friday is no exception.

Map of Places Visited