Many stories have sprung up surrounding the Snake Temple of Penang, more formally known as the Temple of Azure Clouds. But what is very clear is that the temple is not about snake-worship, as its commonly used name may imply. There is no snake worship among the Chinese in Malaysia, unlike parts of Hindu India.

The temple is dedicated to the deity Chor Soo Kong. Why the snakes congregated at this temple remains unknown, but their presence has been totally irrelevant to the worship of the principal deity for which the temple had been built.

And not all visitors have been worshipers. A good percentage had been tourists, from Malaysia or abroad. Because of this, in recent times, the last 30 years or so, the temple has been specially promoted as a unique tourist attraction, the only snake temple in the world where visitors may walk among the snakes.

So the fame of the temple brought visitors from near and far, adding to the prosperity of the locals. Unfortunately mankind does not know how to respect a good thing when it has been enjoying one.

For a start, unthinking temple management permitted the construction of too many stalls at the temple's front. The average tourist would be intimidated by the 'gauntlet' of annoying and unsightly vendor stalls leading up to the temple. The temple authorities have either instituted or tolerated a culture of aggressive and very shameful donation seeking from visitors.

Then, worst of all, fewer snakes have been coming to the temple. The ophidian population has slowly dwindled down to a worrying few; worrying, that is, only to the temple management. Because whether there are snakes or not is totally irrelevant to the worship of the temple deity.

What caused the snakes to dwindle in numbers have been the rampant neighbourhood development of highways and housing estates. Or if one wants to provide a religious reason, the incurring of the divine wrath of Chor Soo Kong by the temple committee's tasteless merchandising and alms-seeking.

But the temple committee is obsessed by one sole concern, to revive the attraction of the temple for tourist by having lots of snakes in the temple. If there are few natural slithery visitors, they intend to import some themselves. Apparently, the temple committee wants to start a reptile house to breed and exhibit various species of snakes, and as a public concession, to educate the public about snakes

The committee seems to have forgotten what the temple had been built for by our forefathers. It's a place of worship, not a tourist venue or a zoo or a curio-vending centre. If the tourists want to visit the temple, well and good, but the primary purpose of the temple must not be forgotten nor altered. The snakes are totally irrelevant.

If the vipers come in on their own will as they have done so over the last two centuries, then that would be a bonus for the temple's attraction, but it's not a mandatory religious requirement.

Feeding of kept snakes requires live prey, as snakes are fastidious carnivores and will not voluntarily eat lumps of meat or dead prey. This means that the zoo-keeper will have to offer, or rather sacrifice smaller live creatures like frogs, mice, chicken (and may I recommend the temple committee members and the temple vendors too). This is a form of killing that shouldn't be conducted in a temple, especially one that claims a Buddhist connection.

And the practice of de-fanging snakes to indulge tourists with photographic opportunities is an unspeakable cruel practice, particularly more so when it's done in a holy venue.

The decreasing viper population is an indication, a warning of how humans have destroyed its surroundings, and represents a wake-up call to reflect on what can be done to remedy this environmental-ecological loss. Perhaps the constructing of special eco-snake-paths leading from nearby bushland or undeveloped areas, as have been cleverly done overseas.

If I may paraphrase, the temple committee 'can't see the temple for the snakes'. Ironically for a Chinese temple, what it really needs now is a Jesus-character to chase those merchants including the temple committee away, and restore the place back to the worshipers, and perhaps to the snakes too.