Jains in Kuala Lumpur

I first heard of Jains when I read the story of Matji, a Jain nun, in William Dalrymple's Nine Lives.  Her "life is very austere and built around the ascetic practice of giving up attachments. She eats very slowly since it is required that no winged insect, ant, or other living creature might have fallen into her food. If she finds anything, she must reject the entire meal and go on a fast. . . Mataji's companion had tuberculosis and decided to starve herself to death. Although she is still young, Mataji has made a decision to follow in this path of ritual suicide."

Our guide at Mount Abu had studied the Jains and he told us about the lives apart from the nuns and the monks. He confirmed that Jains are not your everyday vegetarians. In addition to not eating meat, fish, or eggs they eschew root vegetables. He described households where the women spend a large part of their day thoroughly cleaning their home. A father's wealth was divided among his children, who did not set up businesses in competition with each other. When I noticed that the temple did not have a kitchen to feed the poor, our guide explained that "there are no poor Jains." 


I was chagrined that I scarcely mentioned the Jains in our blog entry on Mt. Abu. The Jain Exhibition gave us a chance to right this oversight, learn more, and meet our neighbors. The temple is less than 2 kilometers from our condo. As we neared the exhibit hall we were greeted, led into the hall, and passed on to the person staffing the first exhibit. The graciousness and organization was admirable - we could not escape becoming engaged. The hall had the buzz of an after services coffee hour or a holiday sale. It seemed to be a gathering of Jains from all over Malaysia and Singapore. There are about 3000 Jain families in Malaysia (given the number of children running around it seems to be a thriving community).

The first exhibit consisted of bottle lids depicting different life forms and 4 lids representing a higher state of being. We tossed a disc. If it landed on a life form you drew a paper with a penalty. Mine was not to play computer games for a day. Lucky me - nothing to sacrifice! During our stay we played a few games. They were simple and designed to teach a lesson. 

At the next exhibit this young man used a pointer to show how animals are used (abused). The exhibit went beyond the usual suspects, e.g., pearls may come from force fed oysters and honey gathering may harm the bees. Living things include vegetables and Jains do not eat root vegetables that may include microbes and destroy (harm) the plant.I understand it Jains have relatively few rigid rules; instead they offer guidelines and insights on what harms living things. 




Next stop was an exhibit where we heard about the wheel of time. The first cycle was similar to the Garden of Eden; they cycles have progressed to a fifth cycle (now). At each cycle the quality of human life was degraded. We heard Wheel of Time 101; the presenter was prepared to give a more detailed explanation. The above link suggestions what more we could have learned.

Where we are now

We were again invited to play another game. We counted the number of triangles, multiplied the number of triangles by 2, added 50 to that number, and so on. We counted 21 triangles; there were 27. The lesson - if you start out with the wrong understanding of a problem the steps to solve it will be correct but the answer will be wrong (the bane of many a math test taker). They put this lesson in the context that all religions have an understanding of the universe (no distinguishing right from wrong understandings). The lesson is universal, e.g., good policies require correctly identifying the problem they are meant to solve.

The explanation of the Jain puja was educational and moving. Jains doing puja reflect on 8 aspects of their religion: water, sandal wood, flowers, incense, light,rice  sweets, and fruits. With each item the devotee reflects on the meaning of the item. The presenter shared her reflections for each item -the words were hers not formulaic. We had an intimate view of how each objects flows through her life and connects her to the universe.

As we spoke to people we asked about we had learned previously. This time we learned that cleaning is to prevent harming life forms - dusting discourages cobwebs (and potentially harming a spider), washing dishes keeps insects from dining on kitchen scraps. In other words cleaning was not frantic. A man from Singapore told us that times change and people are flexible. That is, family members may compete in business (and Jains may marry non-Jains).

We learned more - too much to share. One thorough, accessible source on Jains has been produced by the BBC. We hope next year to see a sign announcing annual Jain exhibition in Malaysia. We will review this entry, go, and add to our knowledge.

At the end of our stay a woman urged us to write down each day something that we were grateful for and put the paper in a jar. She said that at the end of the year we would be amazed at all the good things that had happened. I told her the she was wrong. We would not be amazed. Each day we experience something that makes us glad that we are living in Malaysia.