Return of the Lion Dancers

 

The sounds of drums and cymbals signal the return of the lion dance performers. Lion dance performances have evolved over the course of time. It has a history of over 1,000 years with documented records of people dressed in lion costumes for Buddhist festivities during the Three Kingdoms period (220–289 CE) and later in the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) as written in this post about the 9 Fierce Facts About the Lion Dance HERE. Hartamas Shopping Centre held a lion dance performance on the 12th day of Chinese New Year which began with the traditional lion dance pair below:-

Nian Gao (Sticky Rice with Gula Melaka) pictured above which was freshly made by a lady cook named Yong from Kepong, KL. I had a few slices and they tasted like those Nian Gao from Kedah, flooding me with memories of my late maternal grandmother who would feed me with fresh slices when I was a child. Seeing jade green rice-fields again after more than 2 years, was life-affirming, and seeing these rice-fields during Chinese New Year really heralded the beginning of Spring-time in a tropical country like Malaysia. The paddy-fields of Tanjung Karang pictured below as well as two of the 109 Grey-headed Lapwings (Vanellus Cinereus) that were resting in several flocks scattered around the green paddy-fields that afternoon made my day extra special. It is categorized as of Least Concern (LC) in the Global IUCN Red List category HERE.

The full list of birds seen at Tanjung Karang is available HERE.