Dr. Mah Hang Soon said Wangkang Ceremony is a World Intangible Cultural Heritage

The Deputy Education of Malaysia, YB Senator Dato' Dr. Mah Hang Soon arrived in front of Yong Chuan Tian Temple at 8.07 p.m. on Tuesday 22 December 2020.

Dr. Mah was there on behalf of the Malaysian Government to officially announced the Inscription of the Wangkang Ceremony, rituals and the related practices to a sustainable relationship between man and ocean.

H.E. Olivia GRANGE hammered the decision to adopt the Wangkang Ceremony at 8.45 p.m. on Thursday 17 December 2020 (Malaysian Time) from Paris, France.

After stepping out from the car, Dr. Mah immediately walks to the altar and pay homage to the deities in the shrine hall.

Accompanying Dr. Mah is Dato' Ronald Gan Yong Hoe who is the Director for Wangkang 2020.

Members of the Yong Chuan Tian Temple who offered joss sticks to the deities with Dr. Mah are Gan Tian Hock @Gan Suan Hong, Ken Lai, and the Chinese temple's advisor, Datuk Wira Gan Tian Loo.

Ronald Gan briefed Dr. Mah about the deities before they were seated in the Wangkang Musuem. 

The 10-minutes documentary video was played and the video was an element of submission to UNESCO World Heritage. Thereafter, Dr. Mah delivered a speech in the Malay language and another in Chinese language.

After Dr. Mah delivered his speeches, he presented cash prizes to winners of a photographic competition organized by Roger Sim.

The first prize winner is David Loi Chang Yeow, the second prize winner is Yen Chee Wan. the third prize winner is Lim Kooh Hean, the fourth prize winner is Goh Choon Khong and the fifth prize winner is Jimmy Lim You Feng.

Winner's photograph looks like this.

1st Prize Winner David Loi Chang Yeow

First Runner Up's photograph looks like this.

First Runner Up Yen Chee Wan

Second Runner Up's photograph looks like this.

Second Runner Up Lim Kooh Hean

Roger Sim is the Team Leader of the Photography Contest and he is not supposed to enter the competition. A friend of mine, Roger Sim told me that the total number of photographs he has captured is above 6,000 images. Roger Sim did not realize that he has seized an inscrutable photograph until he checked photograph by photograph. It is only after some 2,000 over photographs that he has gone through, he found this photograph.

Roger Sim unexpected he could shoot this

Impossible to understand or interpret, as his photograph tell a thousand words. If you looks carefully into his photograph, you will see the figure of a Rat. The symbolic rat blaze appeared in the later night on Sunday, 15 November 2020 which is 87 days away when the Ox report on the first day of his duty next year, 2021, February 12.

When all the prizes were given to the winners of the photography contest, Dr. Mah was ushered to the balcony of the Wangkang museum to watch a display of fireworks.

Fireworks display at three different spots within the Chinese temples colors the dark skies for almost 30 minutes.

Dr. Mah highlighted to the media that the inscription of Wangkang Ceremony is only the beginning and there is much works ahead to be done. He hope every one could play a role to continuously preserve the intangible cultural heritage for the next generation.